Determination
by Montenya of the Fairies
Summary: Five years before Ash was born the Kanto Region completely reformed the Indigo League, looking to stop the propensity for pokemon abandonment and abuse. Today Ash's adventure begins.
1. Selection Day

Ash fidgeted nervously as he waited on the stoop outside the professor's lab. It was 6:59. He'd been there since 6:23 that morning, which, considering he usually woke up at seven, was an odd sight for the Pidgey that called Pallet their home. However, as it was the day he would get his first Pokemon you could forgive him for his excitement. At exactly 7:00 the lab would open, and one hour later ten young teens from Pallet and the surrounding area would be given a Pokemon to start their journeys with.

Years ago, Ash had been told, it was only three that were typically given Pokemon from the region's professor, chosen arbitrarily rather than on merit and at the age of ten rather than 15. However, a few years before Ash was born people began to speak out against the prevalence of Pokemon abuse and abandonment, so the rules changed. It was quite simple really (or at least it was when it was all you knew)—the Kanto government kept a log of each Pokemon family, sorted by how much power each beginning evolution had on average, including Pokemon from other regions, and at the age of 15 each beginning trainer who passed an exam was offered one of the bottom twenty Pokemon and allowed to catch one other Pokemon in the wild or be given one as a gift until they got their first gym badge.

After the first two gyms, trainers were allowed another Pokemon from the next twenty on the list, as well as another wild or gifted Pokemon, and after three gyms the restrictions were lifted and Pokemon trainers were finally allowed to catch more than one Pokemon between each gym—but they could not, unless employed in certain jobs such as gym leader, have more than 12 Pokemon total, to avoid Pokemon neglect. If they wished to no longer use an already owned Pokemon, it could be given to a professor or anyone else who had more than three badges or an empty slot.

A system remarkable for its efficiency and efficacy, it had already been adopted by both Sinnoh and Johto as well as its founder Kanto, but at the moment Ash didn't care about all the details and effort which had gone into making it work. All he cared about right now was that in a little more than an hour he would be allowed to have his first Pokemon, and with that Pokemon Ash felt he would be unstoppable.

Finally, he heard jangling coming from the other side of the door and stood, turning in time to see Professor Oak fussing with his keys as he opened the door—while most other scientists used keypads and similar, Professor Oak had always been old fashioned.

"Hi Professor!" Ash said, and then laughed as the professor jumped a little and made an odd sort of noise in surprise. Recovering, Oak blinked again as he took in Ash's presence and realized just how ahead of time the teen was.

"Oh, hello Mr. Ketchum. You're here a bit early, aren't you?"

"Yes Professor! I just couldn't wait!" Ash grinned.

"Well then, why don't you come in and we'll wait for the others to arrive."

It was not the first time he and the Professor had met—the Professor had spoken at Pallet Basic Education, the school for those under 15, a few times, and Ash had taken a summer job the previous year to work in the lab's corral with a few other students, so he'd met the Professor then too. However the two were not exactly close, so they simply sat in companionable silence as they waited for the future trainer's peers to arrive.

Over the next hour, trainers began to trickle in—one of the first was Leaf, who Ash had met while working in the corral. He moved over to her and they talked in low voices about which Pokemon they would choose if given the chance. Leaf's choice surprised Ash—she wanted a Sunkern, a notoriously weak Pokemon, as her starter. She said that she thought it wasn't given enough credit, and Ash wished her the best, knowing that if anyone could she would be able to turn the tiny seed Pokemon into a powerhouse. Ash kept his own wishes to himself, not wanting to jinx it. He did admit that he'd done a lot of research about the potential of each Pokemon, and wanted to focus on that when selecting.

As time wore on teens from more distant areas, who had to give themselves more leeway to arrive on time, also showed up, as well as nearby trainers who raced in as the minutes drew to a close, including one still in his pajamas, and of course Oak's own grandson, Gary.

Gary and Ash had not gotten along since the first time the two had met. On the first day at Pallet Basic Education Gary had spent the entire time being fussed over for being the grandson of someone so famous and important, while Ash had been sent to the corner for being too noisy. This pattern continued over the years, with the animosity between the two growing in proportion to Gary's preferential treatment. It wasn't as if Ash was perfect—he knew he wasn't, and on that first day he probably had been too noisy—it was just that Gary wasn't either, no matter how much adults tried to treat him like he was.

His peers definitely agreed with Ash, considering most went out of their way to avoid talking to Gary when he finally did deign to make an appearance. The young teen took it in stride however, and went to the back of the room to talk to his grandfather, who was making the final preparations for the event.

Finally the hour hand of the clock shifted to "VIII" and the selection ceremony could begin. Professor Oak had lined up 14 pokeballs, which was a reasonably good selection. It was one they were unlikely to get in other towns, where gym leaders were typically the ones in charge of obtaining suitable Pokemon and generally did not spend much time trying to give the youngsters variety. In front of each pokeball was a small folded index card with the name of the Pokemon within the corresponding pokeball written.

Ash quickly skimmed through the choices—there was a Sunkern, so Leaf should be happy, an Azurill, a Kricketot, a Caterpie, Weedle, _and_ Wurmple, a Ralts, a Magikarp, a Scatterbug, a Pichu, an Igglybuff, a Wooper, a Tyrogue, and a Poochyena. Many of the Pokemon weren't even available in Kanto naturally so Ash suspected that the Professor had traded with other regions' professors to get the myriad he did. The other thing that Ash noticed was that there was only one of each Pokemon. That was worrying—if you didn't choose first, the one you wanted could be taken away. And there was one Pokemon that Ash definitely wanted.

Ralts.

Not only were Gardevoir and Gallade powerful Pokemon, and fairy and psychic types great against many other future powerful opponents like dragon types, but Ralts was also able to learn how to teleport, which could be a great boon to any new trainer.

Ash needed to get that Pokemon, he could feel it. That Pokemon was the beginning of him becoming the greatest trainer of all time, of him accomplishing his dream of being the youngest—and greatest—champion Kanto had ever seen. But there was a problem. The order in which new trainers chose their partner was determined by the "FPTE"—the Final Pokémon Trainer Exam—which he had taken two weeks ago. Not one of the ten trainers in the room knew what their score was yet—including Ash.

Gary had been on an ego trip since the exam, convinced that there was no way he could get anything but a perfect on the test and that no other trainer could hope to rise to his level. Leaf had told Ash that she felt that she had done well, but was adopting a wait and see policy. Ben, a young boy who was great at math and science but not much else, was convinced he got the lowest score of the trainers who passed, but Ash thought a more likely candidate was Joey, who had looked as if he had given up half way through and who Ash was genuinely shocked had passed at all—not all who took the exam did.

Out of his own class of fifteen, fourteen had opted to take the exam and he knew that the ten in this room as well as an additional trainer, who had opted to use a family raised Feebas as her first Pokemon, were the only ones who'd been granted a trainer's license—on the first try, at least. Due to the necessity of Pokemon for many jobs Kanto citizens were allowed to attempt the test as many times as they wanted, but they could only retake it once a year.

Professor Oak waited until all of the trainers had lined up in a row directly parallel to the table on which the pokeballs lay and then cleared his throat. Everyone fell silent as they turned their gaze on the row of 14 perfectly aligned pokeballs.

This.

This moment here. This was when everything would change.


	2. Final Preparations

It felt as if time slowed down and he could feel his heartbeat ringing in his ears as Professor Oak stood in front of them, about to announce who could choose first. Ash kept thinking ' _Speak, speak, speak! Say my name! Please!_ ', and it felt as if hours had gone even though he knew only a second or two had passed. But Ash felt as if he needed the Ralts, and he knew that of the starter Pokemon available, its power, technique, and immediate usability compared to others like Magikarp would make it an easy choice for any other starter trainer, including his rival Gary, who had been eying the ball with the same reverence as Ash himself. But even as Ash thought this, even as his thoughts raced while time seemed to stand still, Oak spoke.

"The first to choose will be Gary—" and time restarted as Ash's heart crashed to the ground. _No, no no! What did I do wrong? Was Floette actually a grass/fairy type, not pure fairy? Could Zubat actually not learn mean look? He had spent hours studying! Was it all for nothing?_ "—and Ash, who both tied at 98%."

 _Wait. What?_ Ash turned to Gary, who had started to smirk but now looked frozen. _He had tied with Gary? He had tied with Gary!_ Ash moved to rush forward—Gary was still in shock and Ash would not waste the chance to get the starter Pokemon of his dreams—when Professor Oak spoke again.

"We still need one person to go first however—so I've decided that a rather equitable way to do it was to let the rest of you youngsters decide the order." Ash grinned. This day was perfect. While he had not beaten his rival or gotten a perfect score he had tied with Gary, which meant the arrogant boy had also failed to get the 100% he had bragged so much about, and now the fate of the two rivals would be decided by the very children who Gary had ridiculed for the past few years as he basked in his grandfather's fame. The best part was that Ash saw the exact moment when this fact dawned on Gary too and what had been left of his smirk, however frozen, faded, and a look of pure desperation took over. He whipped around to face his former classmates and tried for the winning grin which had made their kindergarten teacher swoon. Ash stood next to him, shorter, messier, in cheaper attire, in Gary's grandfather's own lab, and did everything he could to keep from whooping in glee.

One after another Ben, Leaf, Joey, Doug, Anthony, Charlie, Stacey, and Rick all choose Ash. Only Rick had hesitated. He had been Gary's best friend until an argument after class one day—Gary had told him that he wasn't showing him enough respect after Rick had corrected him over what moves Magikarp could learn, and Rick had finally given up redeeming the boy.

It was obvious that Professor Oak had not expected this result, or at least hadn't expected it to be so one sided. Ash actually felt sorry for him—Gary seemed to behave in his grandfather's presence, so the good Professor probably hadn't been exposed to his young relative's faults yet. Nevertheless Ash had been chosen to go first, so Oak led him to the table and Ash picked up Ralts's pokeball. He couldn't help but stare at it for a couple seconds, so amazed by what was contained within, before he stepped aside to allow Gary his own turn.

Gary was visibly fuming. It was obvious to Ash that his rival had felt humiliated by the vote, even more so because it was in front of his grandfather, and as Gary approached the table he kept on clenching and unclenching his fists and jaw as he worked to relax enough that his grandfather wouldn't notice something was wrong. It didn't work. Professor Oak looked decidedly worried as he waited for Gary to make his choice—Ash thought that Oak may have been realizing exactly how much of himself Gary had hidden from his grandfather. While Gary was not necessarily mean, the fame had certainly gotten to his head and while the adults may have been charmed by his cocky attitude his peers were decidedly less so.

Nevertheless, Gary approached the table, and after looking through it twice, finally yanked his hand out and took the Tyrogue. Leaf was next and she barely deliberated before grabbing Sunkern's pokeball—just as she wanted to. Next was Rick, who snapped up the Pichu, Anthony, who went for the type protection of Wooper, Charlie, who chose Azurill likely due to her desire to be a fairy-type trainer, and Ben, who was indecisive for a full two minutes before finally selecting Weedle. Stacey went for Igglybuff, which Ash was surprised hadn't been chosen earlier, and Doug chose Poochyena. Finally, it was Joey's turn. Ash was still surprised he had actually passed the FPTEs, but here he was, snapping up the Scatterbug, though going by his expression it seemed likely that Joey wasn't actually aware of what the foreign Pokemon was.

After the selection process was done and each teen had been handed a Pokedex—a state of the art one too— the group left the lab. The first to go his own way was Gary, who had apparently hired a number of cheerleaders to accompany him on the first leg of his journey. Ash heard Professor Oak sigh behind him. It occurred to Ash that due to both of their full schedules—of research and school respectively—the two probably didn't see each other much, which would explain why Oak was so shocked at his grandson's behavior; Ash knew for a fact that Gary's parents at least were aware of the size of his ego. The next to leave were those that didn't live within Pallet proper—an Ace Trainer had volunteered his Kadabra to transport the group to their various abodes to say a final goodbye.

Finally those who did live within Pallet's borders began to turn off the main street to their own houses—Joey to change clothes and all of them to say goodbye before they set out for the first leg of their journey.

Ash was finally alone when it occurred to him that he might want to see his new partner before going home. He looked down to the red and white orb in his hands, then shifted it so that it was pointed out and down and pressed the release button.

A shock of white light almost caused him to flinch away, but it was just for a moment and then there was Ralts. Incredibly small, the Pokemon did not even reach the teen's kneecaps. It was almost entirely white except for a green cap on its head and two red horns protruding from the headpiece. The little Ralts immediately called out its name in greeting—while facing about 150 degrees away from Ash.

The boy quickly shifted so that he was where the Pokemon thought he was and returned the greeting.

"Hello, Ralts. I'm your new partner, Ash." The Ralts hummed happily, no doubt reading Ash's own jubilant mood, but didn't otherwise respond. "I'm going to point this at you, okay? It's called a Pokedex, and it'll tell me a bit about you." The Ralts bobbed up and down and Ash took that as agreement. It likely was—generally before starter Pokemon were given to new trainers they were exposed to a lot of people to pick up basic human speech and behavior patterns (one of Ash's assignments while working at the ranch was in fact just that). Ash carefully aimed the small red Pokedex at Ralts and pressed 'observe'. Almost immediately, the Pokedex burst into life, giving Ash all the miracle in technology could glean off of Ralts, including its height, approximate weight, and a general description, among other specifics. It also gave a small spoken synopsis.

"This Pokemon is a Ralts, or the feeling Pokemon. It uses its two red horns to sense the emotions of those around it. This Ralts is female, has the ability 'synchronize' as well as the hidden ability 'telepathy', and knows the moves Growl, Confusion, and the egg move Memento." Ash blinked in surprise. While having an egg move or two was common, particularly for bred Pokemon, the Ralts line usually didn't have one due to the lack of compatible moves. On top of that, the move memento itself was rather unusual in that it allowed the Pokemon to use the last of its energy to severely weaken the power of its opponent. And that didn't even mention having two abilities—a hidden ability was rarely seen, and he got one on his starter!

"You're pretty powerful Ralts—while I'd prefer not to use memento, it's a good last resort move for when we get you teammates, and Confusion's a pretty good move too because it can make the target disoriented. That said, we'll have to get a partner for you soon because the only way to effectively practice these moves otherwise is challenging wild Pokemon, and that has too high a chance of you getting hurt to do nonstop." Finished, Ash closed the Pokedex—he'd already studied the Ralts line in detail knowing that it could be an option, and was in fact his preferred option, so he'd only needed to get the specifics of this particular specimen.

"Now, how about a name. Do you want one?" Again, the small Pokemon bobbed in what Ash now realized was her own rather bad approximation of a nod. "Okay… how about Anima? No? Then, maybe Sopho? Curie? Um... Tyche? Yes! Tyche it is." Ash grinned as the newly christened Tyche spun around in joy. While he knew that most of the feeling Pokemon's emotions were direct representations of his own, not all of it was just mirrored, so Tyche's joy was her own as well. However, before he could go home, there was one more important thing he had to talk to his little partner about.

"Okay Tyche, so like I said before I'm your new trainer. It's my personal goal to become the youngest—and greatest—champion this region has ever seen and I'm hoping you'll be with me when I get there. What do you say?" Ash grinned as Tyche shouted in obvious approval of the plan. "Alright. Now, it's a few more yards to home and I want you to be a surprise for my mom, so I'm going to put you back in your ball, okay?" Once more getting a bob to the affirmative, Ash did as he said, then turned back around and finished the trek to his house.

Immediately after opening the door he was jumped on by his mother.

"How did it go? Did you have a good time? What was your score on the FPTE? Which Pokemon did you choose? Have you decided when you are going to leave yet?" His mother shot rapid-fire at him, not even pausing for breath as she hugged him then held him at arm's length, giving him a once over, and then hugged him again as if she hadn't just seen him that morning.

"Mom… Mom… Mom!" Ash finally shouted.

"Oh! Oh, sorry sweetie, but you know how I get. Anyway, this is likely going to be one of the last times I see my Ashton for months! A mother is allowed to dote, you know—it's why I had you in the first place." His mother laughed.

"Mom!"

"Alright, alright. Come and sit down. I didn't know how long the process would take so I made us some sandwiches for lunch and I don't think either of us would hurt from eating now instead of later, particularly considering how little you ate before you sprinted out of the house—over an hour early!" His mother said, lightly reprimanding him as she herded him to the kitchen table, where sure enough three large pinap and nomel berry sandwiches sat. As he dug in, Ash began to tell his mom about his morning.

"Well, I tied with Gary for first place—we both got a 98% on the exam—and to decide who should go first all the other trainers got to vote, which I won, so I got to choose first, and Mom—Mom! I got a Ralts!" Ash couldn't help his ear splitting grin, which his mother mimicked, knowing how happy that made her son. "I named her Tyche—after the mythological Meowth goddess of luck, you know, and she's really awesome. She even knows an egg move and has a hidden ability! I'll need to catch a new Pokemon soon though, because all her moves aren't really possible to practice on stones and stuff like they recommended at school and she'll probably tire out quickly from battling. As for leaving, I think tomorrow would be best—I don't think she's ready to battle repeatedly right now, so I don't want to go today when everyone else is." Finished with both his day's summary and the first sandwich, he reached out and grabbed another.

"That's great sweetie! I knew you could do it. Yes, Ralts aren't particularly well known for learning any physical moves. Any thoughts of what you will capture?" His mother answered, still working on her own sandwich.

"Not really, I mean, I don't really like any of the Pokemon around here—they're nice and all, but you rarely see a Raticate at the Indigo Conference, and the Pidgey line isn't generally known for its great attack stats or moves—naturally learned ones, anyway. Then there's Viridian forest—I'll have to go through there anyway to get to the closest certified gyms that accept beginners—and while I know that there's been a pretty big migration to the forest recently, I don't know what all of the new Pokemon are. I guess I'll have to wait and see." His mother hummed in response and they fell into a companionable silence until they finished eating.

After the dishes were done the family, including Ash's mom's Pokemon, who'd been busy watering the berry garden in the backyard, moved to the living room and once there Ash again released Tyche.

It was then that the first signs of Tyche's personality began to appear—while Tyche didn't seem to mind his mother, the second she felt the presence of her Mr. Mime, Mimey, she darted behind Ash. It was obvious that it wasn't Mimey's emotions that were causing this response—his curiosity wasn't malevolent in the least—so it must've been that Mimey was a Pokemon. This behavior pattern was prevalent in timid Pokemon, so that had to be Tyche's nature.

Ash, noting this, carefully picked the Ralts up. "It's okay, Tyche. Mimey is my mom's Pokemon—he's really nice. Do you want to meet him?" Ash said in as soothing a voice as he could muster while he tried to radiate calm and peace. The Ralts bobbed a bit in Ash's hands, so he sat her down and gestured for the Mr. Mime to approach. Mimey did, though much more slowly than he would usually move—he himself had a jolly nature, sacrificing some of his ability to perform special attacks for speed. Ash sat Tyche down and shifted back a few steps, resolved to let Tyche meet the other Pokemon on her own.

The small psychic and fairy Pokemon murmured as it looked up at the much larger psychic/fairy type in a sort of shy greeting. Mimey in return waved at the little creature, making sure to stoop low in a gesture of non-aggression. The Ralts hummed for a few seconds and then, in a sudden shift of personality, shouted and leapt at Mr. Mime, attempting to hug one of its legs. Sure enough, when the feeling Pokemon actually took the time to get an impression of the other Pokemon, any apprehension went away and Tyche had decided that she had made a new best friend.

Ash and his mother left the two new friends to talk, each going off on their own way—Ash's mother to prepare some food and berries to begin his journey with, and Ash to finish his own preparations.

Once in his room, Ash pulled out his backpack from under his desk. He'd spent almost all of the money he'd saved up since he was ten as well as his mother's "Ash's Journey Fund" on what was inside it, and for good reason. Inside the backpack were six containers, the first five with expansion and weightless technology, though not as good as the ones on pokeballs. While pokeballs had much better tech they were also only for one specific usage and their cost was subsidized by the government. For these Ash had to pay full price.

The first container he had set up to be exclusively for medicine, and a label written in sharpie on the side denoted this. It currently contained two antidotes, three potions, and a basic first aid kit.

The second was labeled "Food/Berries" and would contain whatever food and berries his mother gave him as well as any of either he picked up along the way. Ash was disappointed that he couldn't afford the preservation version of this container, but it cost $100,000 alone, as opposed to the $10,000 he had paid for all five of the expanded, low-weight containers. He just had to make sure to use all of the berries within a certain time or plant them, as was the custom so as to allow other trainers a chance at the berries you couldn't use.

The third contained his clothes. For this he went relatively basic, wanting easily mendable but long lasting clothes for the road. He had long sleeved and short sleeved shirts in basic colors and several pairs of cargo pants. He had cotton socks and wooly socks, both resistant to holes and wetness. He also had a pair of duck boots, though he did not keep them in the container, and an all-purpose two layer coat, which had a warm fleece inner jacket which could be added to the insulated hooded outer layer that could also act as a rain and sand jacket. For pajamas he'd packed a few pairs of sweatpants and undershirts because they could be used for other purposes too. He had also packed swim trunks—while there wasn't much water on the first three routes, Cerulean City's north side held plenty of it, and he wanted to be prepared—perhaps his fourth Pokemon could be a water type. He also had underwear.

The fourth was set aside for equipment—in it were the necessary apparatus for camping, like a sleeping bag, miniature cooker, and utensils.

The fifth was labeled 'free space'. It contained some books, writing utensils, a small radio, and some other knickknacks which Ash couldn't bring himself to leave behind.

The sixth container, though. The sixth was his favorite. Unlike the others it wasn't expandable, and it didn't have any weightless technology. However, it was a TM case, and that made it the best (and most expensive) of the six. Although it was currently empty Ash knew that TMs could, when used right, be the tool necessary to win an otherwise tied battle, or make a powerful Pokemon with a low natural movepool a battlefield terror, so he had saved up especially for one to start with.

His other equipment, like an extra five pokeballs, a map, and a swiss army knife, he placed in the regular pockets of the backpack for easy access.

After double checking that everything he would not be using that night or the next morning was packed away, he brought his bag downstairs and put it on one of the kitchen chairs. Turning to his mother, he grinned, excited, and asked "What are you giving me anyway?"

"I… have gotten you _so_ much." His mother responded, matching his smile. This was why he was so happy—his mother was a berry farmer, so she could give him a lot more berries than other trainers started out with. While he wouldn't be given an absurd supply—his mother still had to make money—berries were incredibly versatile in use and his mother had already promised to send him some extras when she could. "Let's start with food… There's Tauros jerky, a few tins of Wishiwashi meat, some honey for flavoring, a couple tins of beans, pickled charti berries, and haban berry jam. For berries I've gotten you plently of Leppa and Oran berries of course, as well as a few Pecha and Persim berries, and because you got yourself a little Ralts I've saved you some Kasib berries and Kebia berries as well; they'll be Tyche's favorites. Also, keep in mind that your little partner prefers sweet foods, so when you can try to give her that flavoring."

"Yes mom." Ash groaned; his mother always emphasized the importance of cooking and flavor because of her profession. "And thanks." he smiled again and hugged his mother; all the berries she gave him she couldn't sell, and that and everything else she'd done for him made his leaving the next day even harder.

"What will you spend the rest of the day doing?" His mother asked after he'd finished tucking the packages away in his backpack.

"I was thinking of getting a head start with Tyche learning Teleport. I know it'll take a while but practicing is key and if she understands the basics before we set out then I'm sure she'll learn it in no time." Ash replied.

"That's smart," his mother said. "How about you use the backyard? I've got to work in there anyway—some Rattata got into my Cheri berry plot yesterday, so I've got to work to repair the damage."

"Sounds good. I'll go get Tyche." Plans made, Ash went into the living room and drew the Ralts away from the game of hide and seek she was playing with Mimey. It was unfortunate that despite his typing Mr. Mime could not use teleport, because seeing the move in action would likely have helped Tyche a lot in learning it.

Ash and Tyche stood in the backyard as the young teen tried to figure out the best way to go about teaching her teleport. He'd already shown her the two clips the Pokedex had stored, and read through what little guidance it offered on the training of the move, but what advice there was generally just said something along the lines of "it's innate", which, considering his Ralts was not an Abra, it wasn't.

Finally Ash decided that Tyche should just go for it. "Stand here, okay," he said as he positioned her in the middle of the mowed lawn. "I'm going to stand back here," he backed up a few steps until she was a couple of feet away from him, "and I want you to try to teleport closer to me."

The young Ralts tilted her head up so that her eyes were visible and looked at him for a couple seconds, before turning her attention to the ground between them. After a couple more seconds of what looked like intense concentration, she scrunched her eyes shut and turned her head forward again. For one beat, then two, there was no difference, and then she suddenly flickered—

And stayed in the same spot.

Still, it was something, however small, and Ash knew he could work with this. For the next couple of hours they practiced, taking many short breaks in between each attempt for the still incredibly weak Pokemon to recover. By late afternoon they had made significant improvement—while Tyche was still not remotely prepared for the distance teleportation that a true mastery of the move could accomplish, she could manage to teleport a few centimeters in the direction she chose and she was getting a substantially smaller decrease in energy after each attempt.

Not wanting to work Tyche to exhaustion and desiring to spend a few hours with his mother before he left, Ash decided that the amount of progress was sufficient to call it quits for training for the day, so he and his Ralts went inside and spent the rest of the evening watching old Indigo Championship videos with his mother and Mimey.

The next morning he woke up at seven. Tyche had chosen to sleep outside her pokeball, and had instead positioned herself on his pillow so that she was half leaning on his head, so he shook her awake too before rolling out of bed and getting ready to leave. Finally, not half an hour later, he and his mother were outside their house and Ralts was humming next to him.

"I'm going to miss you so much my little Ashton!" His mother sobbed as she squeezed him as hard as she could. Ash was a little uncomfortable—this had been going on for a few minutes already and the neighbors were starting to stare.

"I'll miss you too mom, but you have to let go. Like, now. Mom!" As it became increasingly clear that his mother wouldn't let go of her own volition, he began to struggle to get out of her vice grip.

"Alright! Alright. It's just—you're already so grown up, and it feels like yesterday you were toddling around the house like a Spinda! I'm just—call! Often! Everyday!" His mom ordered.

"MOM! I won't call every day, but I'll try to call every time I get to a Pokemon Center, okay?" Ash said. His mother nodded and hugged him again.

"I just want you to be happy Ash. I hope you have a wonderful journey." His mother smiled and Ash smiled back, then turned to leave.

"Bye Mom! Love you!"

"I love you too! Don't forget to change your underwear!"

"MOM!"


	3. On the Road

According to Ash's history textbook, Route 1 was so named because it was the first route the famous cartographer John Cowley mapped. Using several specially trained Pidgeotto he outlined the entire region during the middle ages, and his maps were used as a baseline to this day (In fact, any paths created after his effort were called roads instead of routes). The route itself was one of the less interesting roads of Kanto though, with only two relatively weak Pokemon commonly found, and generally no one spent much time on it. In point of fact, anyone who didn't have to generally spent none. It led between Pallet Town and Viridian City, so it couldn't even be used by starting trainers to prepare for a gym—Pallet Town didn't have one and Viridian City only allowed trainers with more than seven badges to challenge it. It was, all in all, one of the most mundane routes in all of Kanto.

Nevertheless, Ash's home was Pallet, so this is the route he was on. There weren't any trainers in sight—that was likely due to the issues of disinterest mentioned earlier, the twisting nature of the route, and how the majority of Ash's peers had left the day before. That was how Ash wanted it. However, he still needed to battle.

It wasn't as if the day itself was bad—it was sunny and clear and at around ten a rainbow had shown up out of nowhere, making the route itself picturesque. It was just that from the point of view of a trainer, there wasn't much entertaining about the circuitous path.

Ash tried to go through as much thick grass as possible in order to train Ralts. Thankfully the Pokemon on the route were rather easy to defeat, with the Pidgey and Rattata that made the route their home generally quite young, using the relatively clear glen composing route 1 to test their mettle against others of their strength until they were powerful enough to live in the thicker forest on either side.

The day essentially went as Ash had wanted it to: he and Tyche would be stumbling through the grass when a Pidgey or Rattata would jump out and growl at them. Ash would order Tyche to growl in return, and then to use confusion. He also had her trying to evade each attack by teleporting. This became extremely mind-numbing for the young trainer after the first few times, but by the end of the first day Tyche was able to double the length she had been able to teleport and make the energy cost basically nonexistent, and Ralts's sensory abilities were honed such that she was now fully aware of where everyone around her was within a few feet, so Ash counted the effort as profitable.

Finally it was evening, and Ash was beginning to set up camp to stop and rest for the night—he had no idea how much further Viridian was and with the exception of lunch he and Tyche had been going nonstop since morning—when another trainer ran up to him.

"Hi! I'm Sherman! I became a Pokemon trainer yesterday! Isn't that great? Wanna have a battle?" The kid was still dressed in school clothes and didn't look very worn out, so Ash assumed he came from Viridian City and had probably just gotten his first Pokemon there too.

"Sure! My name's Ash and I've got a Ralts named Tyche. What do you have?" Ash asked.

"I've got a Wooper! She's awesome, I've named her Darling! Come on out Darling!" Sherman cried, opening his pokeball. Sure enough, out of it came a little blue creature—a Wooper. Given that the species was not common anywhere around the area, it was surprising that Giovanni—the Viridian Gym leader—had gotten one, but then he was a ground type expert, so it made sense that he would try to provide the only possible ground type starter.

"To the front Tyche." Ash gave his own command. "You can have the first move" Ash added, wanting to see what he was up against.

"Okay! Um… use Water Gun, Darling!" Out spurted a jet of water.

"Teleport! Then, Confusion!" Ash yelled. Tyche tried to teleport out of the way, but didn't manage to completely make it and was hit by the edges of the jet of water the Wooper had shot out. Ash studied the damage she'd taken—she probably couldn't be hit like that more than three times before fainting, and she'd already been hit once.

Tyche then let loose with her own attack, but Sherman was ready and shouted at Darling to dodge, which the blue Pokemon managed to do with about the same success that Tyche had had. Still, because Tyche had more experience battling, Darling was already feeling more of the effects. The Wooper _might_ be able to take one more, but the hit after and she would be done, regardless of the hit's power.

This was Ash's element. Everything outside the battle shut off as he focused on winning—His mind began to whir as he tried to analyze the battle.He'd only been able to effectively order Tyche to Teleport because he knew the attack was coming due to Sherman's shouting, but then he had done the same thing and gotten the same response. So this time Ash whispered.

"Growl then Teleport immediately. Then use Confusion." As Ash spoke, so too did Sherman.

"Water Gun twice Darling! I know you can do it!"

Both Pokemon followed their trainer's orders to the letter, however because her trainer hadn't told her too, and because she was so young that she had not yet developed battling instincts, Darling didn't look out for an attack. This time Tyche was prepared though, and managed to teleport a full foot in time, before letting loose a psychic beam straight at the Wooper. Darling and her trainer noticed it was coming too late, and while Sherman did call for her to dodge and she did try to, there was too little time and the blast of energy slammed into her. "Confusion again" Ash whispered, but the order turned out to be unnecessary. When the Wooper tried to water gun again she was too disoriented from Tyche's attack and hit herself by accident. For one beat, then two, she managed to stay upright, before she finally gave in and fell to the ground.

"YES!"

Across the field Sherman recalled his Wooper, and Ash walked over to him and shook his hand. "Nice battle."

"Yeah—it was pretty close in the end, but I should have been watching out for another attack. Oh well, this was just Darling's second battle, and the first was against a wild Pidgey." Sherman said.

"Even so—your Wooper's pretty powerful and it's obvious you're a pretty good trainer if Wooper is already that good at aiming and dodging." Ash replied.

"Same to you!" Sherman smiled as he pulled out a few dollars to hand to Ash. The school boy then noticed Ash's gear, which he had gotten out in preparation of setting camp. "You know that Viridian City's close to here, right? It's literally just on the other side of the bend."

"Really? That's awesome! I was ready to just set camp here." Ash grinned, and immediately moved to put everything away.

"Yep! I'll wait for you and we can walk there together." Sherman said. Ash finished packing his backpack and they took off.

Along the way Ash took the time to ask Sherman about his experiences with Viridian, and Sherman did the same for Ash and Pallet. By the time they reached the city, Ash knew the general layout of the metropolitan area and that Giovanni was, apparently, terrifying.

"I'm not kidding! I swear Fred was about to wet himself! All he'd done was arrive less than a minute late and Giovanni treated him like he'd committed a crime against nature! I'm so happy I thought to arrive fifteen minutes early." Sherman reminisced. 

"Wow! Professor Oak is nothing like that. I mean, Joey arrived in his pajamas and Oak only tsked at him. I can't imagine trying to concentrate on your starter if you have someone that scary looming over you. Why'd you choose the Wooper anyway?"

"It wasn't because it's a ground type, if that's what you're asking. It's just that the rest of the choices sucked—three Rattata, _four_ Pidgey, a Weedle, and two Woopers. What choice would you make?" Ash acknowledged that that had made sense—if those were his choices, he would have picked Wooper too. It was one of the better Pokemon offered out of all the starters anyway. Just then the two teens and the little Ralts trailing behind them noticed a building standing just outside the city. "That's a police checkpoint—we've been having issues with Team Rocket lately, so it's always manned nowadays. Make sure to have your ID ready, and you should probably put your Ralts away. Pokemon aren't allowed to roam free in cities." Ash agreed, and after putting Tyche in her pokeball he fished his ID out of his jacket as Sherman did the same.

"Hello! I'm Officer Jenny! Can I see your IDs please?"

"Yes officer." Both teens replied, and opened up their Pokedexes. Once their identities were verified, both boys were ushered through.

"Alright, well my house is over to the left, and the Pokemon Center is back there—just go down this street until you reach Center Street and turn left. It should be on the right. It was good meeting you, Ash." Sherman said.

"You too!" Ash replied, before the two split up.

With Sherman's directions it was easy to find the Pokemon Center, and after turning Tyche over to Nurse Joy for a checkup, Ash had dinner in the cafeteria. There were a number of other trainers there, including Doug and Charlie (who had selected their Pokemon with him), so Ash sat at their table and they compared their current experiences with their Pokemon.

While Charlie and Ash were doing fine, Doug had run into some issues because of two distinct traits of the Poochyena line, both of which Doug was having significant trouble controlling: first, out of the twenty possible starters, Poochyena were considered the most aggressive and least docile, and it showed because Doug had yet to convince Jaws—his Poochyena—to listen to him.

The second issue was that Poochyena never left a battle half done. Doug had spent most of the day yesterday chasing after Jaws because they had gotten into a battle with a Rattata who hightailed it halfway through. While the trainer and Jaws had managed to eventually catch the little mouse Pokemon, by that point both he and his Poochyena were too exhausted to continue.

Ash and Charlie both sympathized with Doug—they had been lucky enough to get Pokemon who were incredibly agreeable in nature, though part of that was by choice.

A few minutes later, just as Ash was going to pick up his Pokemon and go to bed, the skylight which illuminated the atrium of the building crashed down and two pokeballs fell to the floor before cracking open.

"Koffing" The poisonous levitating Pokemon intoned

"Ekans" the purple and yellow snake Pokemon screeched.

As the Koffing let out a billowing smokescreen, the trainers in the Pokemon Center screamed. Unfortunately, because it was so early in this season of the Indigo Conference, there were no strong trainers who had made it to challenging Giovanni yet, so all of the trainers in the building were novices at best, and most of their Pokemon were being treated by Nurse Joy, which left the group as a whole rather defenseless.

Ash quickly grabbed Doug and Charlie and gestured at them to stay quiet. All three of them snuck to the side of the cafeteria, so they wouldn't be seen by the two poison Pokemon. Behind the two Pokemon two people and a Meowth appeared. The two—who clearly wore the uniforms of Team Rocket grunts—had their Koffing shoot toxic spikes around the trainers, then ordered the Nurse to give them all of the Pokemon in the Center. The Nurse refused, so the female Grunt—who the male one referred to as Jessie—ordered the Ekans to hit her with a poison sting. The nurse dodged and ran out of the room through the door to the hospital. The two grunts tried to follow her but found themselves barred by a lock so the guy—who Ash thought was named James—ordered the Koffing to use assurance on the door until it broke. The Koffing began to do just that.

Meanwhile, the three trainers were trying to figure out what to do.

"Tyche's a psychic type and knows confusion, but I don't think she's nearly powerful enough to take on those two—not yet, at least, particularly with her poison type weakness. What we need to do is contact the police. I know that there's the building at the edge of town, but is there one any closer?" Ash asked.

"I didn't see any." Doug said.

"Me neither" Charlie added. She hesitated, before asking, "what about Nurse Joy's Pokemon? Surely they would be strong enough." Ash shook his head.

"The only Pokemon of hers I've seen is Chansey, and I'm going to guess that all of its moves are geared towards healing other Pokemon, not hurting them." Ash sighed. He felt as if he had to do something, but what? The Koffing was going to get through the hospital door any second. Just then the Meowth he saw earlier poked his head around the cafeteria entrance. Seeing them, it grinned and opened its mouth. Terrified about the scratch cat alerting its trainers of their presence, Ash acted instinctively. He kicked it.

"Yeow!" The Pokemon was thrown clear across the room—it looked like all those years of football hadn't gone to waste.

Immediately the three youngsters took off, trying desperately to get through the front entrance of the Pokemon Center before the two Rocket Grunts could stop them. Charlie, being by far the fastest, managed to get through the door first, but Doug was still exhausted from chasing his Poochyena the day before and Ash had gone through the entire route in one day and kicked a rather heavy Meowth, so neither of them could keep up with their fellow trainer. Ash turned to the side to see the Ekans and Koffing, apparently having succeeded in its door breaking quest, leering at them as they closed in. Desperately, the young teen pushed in one last burst of energy and slammed through the door, pulling Doug alongside him. The three teens sprinted as fast as they could down the street, screaming as loudly as they could for help.

Around them, lights switched on as the residents of Viridian City were startled awake by not only the racket the trio were making but also the noises of the two Pokemon chasing them, who sent acid and sludge missiles at the trainers as they attempted to close the distance. While the trainers had initially bought some time for themselves while the Rocket Grunts' Pokemon waited on orders, what little distance they'd covered since then was quickly disappearing and Ash wasn't sure how much longer he could run.

A glob of acid hit right beside his left leg and Ash began to feel hopeless, but just as he was about to give up in an attempt to buy his former classmates more time he heard a voice shout:

"Nidoqueen, attack!"

At once, a beam of light shot past them. Ash turned to see the monstrous evolution of Nidoran appear from her pokeball and instantly tense and shoot out a ball of energy, which hit the Koffing, causing the Pokemon to faint immediately. Again, what could only have been the gym leader's Pokemon powered up and let loose the attack, this time hitting and fainting the Ekans.

Ash stopped running and immediately collapsed on the ground, narrowly missing hitting Doug's own falling body on the way down. His pulse was racing and he felt as if he couldn't catch his breath, but he made sure to stay vaguely upright as Giovanni walked towards them, recalling his Pokemon as he did. Behind him two Officer Jennys and another police officer sprinted towards the Pokemon Center, but he stopped in front of the group of trainers and stared down at him as if he were a benevolent Persian and they were simply Rattata he couldn't be bothered to consume. It was a very odd feeling, considering the gym leader had just saved their life, but it made it even clearer why Sherman had spoken with such fear and reverence when discussing the man.

"Can you stand?" Giovanni asked.

"Um… yes." Charlie answered, scrambling to do so. The two boys nodded and jumped up too.

"Good. What happened?"

"Shouldn't we… I mean, shouldn't we wait for an officer?" Doug asked. Ash winced—it was obvious that you didn't keep a man like Giovanni waiting. Giovanni obviously shared that sentiment, because all he did in response was quirk one of his eyebrows.

Because it was obvious Charlie was still recovering and Doug now looked unwilling to speak, it fell to Ash to explain the circumstances which left them lying in the middle of the road. The entire time Ash talked Giovanni's expression didn't change—in fact, he didn't seem to have one. Ash idly wondered what emotions Tyche would feel if she were here. Tyche!

"That's about it sir. I mean, that's everything that happened. And, I don't mean to be rude, but can we check up on our Pokemon now? The Rocket Grunts did get into the hospital, and I want to make sure my Ralts is okay." Ash knew that may not have been the most polite way to ask, but he was exhausted and Giovanni was terrifying and Ash just wanted to get Tyche and curl into a ball and sleep.

"Hmm? Oh, yes. That will be all. You may leave." Dismissing them, Giovanni turned to look at a hot air balloon that was fading away in the distance. He smirked, but Ash didn't dare ask why, simply turning and beginning to stumble back to the Center with Doug and Charlie.

Half an hour later found him in one of the Pokemon Center's free, but basic and size based, rooms. Because he only had one Pokemon, and a small one at that, the room was more of a closet than anything else, but Ash didn't care—his Ralts was shaken up but otherwise all right and there was a wonderful bed to sleep in. Everything was good.


	4. Teammate Number Two

The next morning Ash woke up and had breakfast with Ralts, Doug, Charlie, and Charlie's Azurill, Beam. After they were done Ash sat at one of the phone kiosks lining the waiting room walls and dialed his mother.

"Ash!" His mother answered immediately. "How are you? Did you just get to Viridian? There weren't any problems were there?" Ash winced, and his mother immediately noticed. "What? What went on? You weren't attacked by Spearow were you? They said on the radio yesterday morning that a whole flock had been seen heading in that direction!"

"No, I didn't see any Spearow. I actually made it here yesterday, but—Mom, you have to promise not to freak out." Ash said, begging his mother not to react as he knew she would.

"Not freak out about what? What happened Ash?" His mom was becoming increasingly worried, and Ash knew that it was no use keeping it a secret any longer.

"When I was at the Pokemon Center last night it was… well, it was attacked. By Team Rocket, I mean. But it's okay! Giovanni stopped their Pokemon and while the two grunts got away they had to abandon their Pokemon to do so, and they didn't get anyone else's, so it's okay!" The entire time Ash was speaking, his mother's eyes got wider and wider.

"OKAY?! You think that was okay? You were attacked Ashton! Attacked! And you're saying that it's okay!" His mother yelled. Ash winced, glancing to the right at all of the trainers who were staring at him. Knowing that many of them would have to suffer through the same fate when they themselves called home didn't make his embarrassment any smaller.

"Mom, it's fine, really! Giovanni managed to stop them!" Ash said, trying to calm his mother down. He was happy he'd put Tyche back in her pokeball: she wouldn't be able to deal with the emotions in the room, even with his mother a town over.

After talking to his mother a few more minutes, she finally felt better about him continuing his journey, and he felt better about what had occurred—as his mother told him, he'd done the best he could under the circumstances. Still, he was happy he was getting a few days of sleeping outside a Pokemon Center after this. He was constantly tense when in this one.

A few minutes later he had said goodbye to Doug, who was staying at Route 1 until he could control his Poochyena, and Charlie, who was going to make a brief visit home so that her parents could see that she really was okay.

Ash, on the other hand, left Viridian City through Route 2 and not a half hour later arrived at the Viridian Forest. It was as he entered that he let out Tyche. He knew that this segment of his journey would be harder than the last—the Viridian Forest was well known for its abundance of the Weedle line, which were poison types. Ash was just happy that the Ralts's fairy typing canceled out its psychic weakness to bugs.

The two almost immediately ran into a Caterpie, and despite how the Caterpie only knew one offensive move it was still a tougher battle than any of the Rattata or Pidgey had been.

As they continued to move through the forest, Ash and Tyche sought out as many battles as possible. By the time they stopped for lunch, Ash felt that Tyche had finally learned how to teleport. To test this, he had the Ralts teleport to random areas within his field of sight in the forest. Ten minutes later, he was sure: at least in the case of battling, Ralts had Teleport down. It took only half a second for Tyche to get up the necessary energy to teleport, and her range was at least 50 meters and growing each time she attempted the move. She could also teleport about fifteen times in a row without even a sign of exhaustion.

Tyche's other moves had improved too—her Growl attack now seemed to actually intimidate other Pokemon, and her Confusion attack was growing in power regularly and would occasionally even disorient its target as it had Sherman's Wooper.

By 13:00 they were on the road again. While training was important, they were still in desperate need of a teammate for Tyche. The gym Ash wanted to challenge first was a rock specialty one, and while the Tyche was not weak to rock types she was not particularly strong to them either. Despite this, Ash had yet to come across a Pokemon he had any desire to catch. There were Caterpie aplenty, and Weedle too, and their evolutions were about as regularly available as they were. Every once in a while Ash would see a Pidgey flying above him, and once he thought he saw a Pidgeotto. While he had not personally seen it, he had also heard a battle between what sounded like a Pikachu and a Beedrill.

Still, by midday it was clear that none of those Pokemon appealed to him, so he was prepared to keep looking for at least the rest of the day.

But before the duo could go back to the search, they heard someone calling their name.

"Ash! Ash! Wait up! It's me, Joey!" Ash slowed to a stop as he waited for his childhood classmate to catch up to him, and smiled in greeting.

"What's up Joey?" 

"A lot! I captured my second Pokemon already and I think Speckles is about to evolve!" Joey excitedly informed Ash.

"That's great! What's your second Pokemon?"

"How about I show you? Let's have a Pokemon battle!" Ash agreed, eager for another battle with a trainer himself, and soon they were standing a couple feet apart in battle position. Tyche was already in front of Ash, but Joey hadn't yet released his Pokemon, wanting to wait until the battle officially began. Finally, the young boy took a pokeball off his belt and pressed the button. Out popped a Caterpie, and one that was obviously still beaten up from its recent capture. Ash felt like bashing his head against the wall. Not only had Joey sent out his comparatively weaker Pokemon, but its capture didn't even make any sense—it was of the same typing as his other Pokemon, a Scatterbug! It would have made much more sense, in the long run, for him to have tried for a Pikachu or Pidgey, or even a Rattata!

Still, this was a battle, so Ash would give it the respect it deserved. Making sure to keep his voice in a low tone so that Joey couldn't hear him, Ash began to direct Tyche. Keeping in mind that her one attack was not very effective on bug types he started with weakening her opponent.

"Growl Tyche, as many times as you can, and each time he tries to hit you dodge by teleporting." Across the field, Joey was also relaying his orders.

"We're in a Pokemon battle, Buddy! Try to tackle your opponent!" Tyche easily teleported away from the first attack, as well as the next two, continually making the Caterpie more and more scared and less and less powerful as she did so. Joey was also being effected—he was getting frustrated by his inability to hit the Ralts. "Try String Shot!" He finally shouted, and while the first two were just as off target as the tackle, the quicker string shot did eventually hit its target—Tyche was now unable to effectively Teleport, at least at her current level.

Knowing he had lowered the Caterpie's stats as much as he could, and that due to the String Shot Tyche couldn't dodge attacks using her preferred method, Ash decided to end the battle quickly. Which meant it was time to go on the offensive. "Confusion, Tyche. Don't stop until the Caterpie faints." Joey shouted similar orders to tackle to his Caterpie, and both Pokemon began doing the best they could to pummel the other to the ground.

In the end, despite the string shot and that Tyche was not at her preferred distance for attacking, the Caterpie was quickly defeated. He was much too weak offensively to do basically any damage to the Ralts, and he was already straining against the injuries he'd received during his capture.

"It was a good battle, Joey." Ash said once the other boy had recalled his Pokemon and the string shot remnants had been cleaned up. "That Caterpie's got good aim—it'll be a good fighter after it evolves into a Butterfree."

"Buddy will, won't he?" Joey said, smiling down at the pokeball. "Well, thanks for the battle. I have to head back to Viridian though. Buddy should see Nurse Joy and Speckles probably wouldn't mind the break either." Both trainers shook hands and went on their way.

As he and his Ralts continued on their search, Ash contemplated the battle as well as the other ones he and Tyche had had. In all of them Tyche had been forced to basically brute force her way to victory because they didn't have a move that was strong against the numerous bug types yet. Stopping to take a rest in a small grove, Ash checked the Pokedex for moves a young Ralts could learn.

A few minutes later, while somewhat disappointed that there wasn't a super effective move Tyche could quickly learn he felt suitably satisfied that he and Tyche could start practicing a fairy type move called Disarming Voice. While it wasn't strong against bug-types, it did have an advantage Confusion didn't—if done correctly, it couldn't miss.

"It's pretty simple, Tyche. Basically, you are going to concentrate as much fairy energy as possible in your mouth, focus on your target, and then release the energy by singing. Once you get it down it's supposed to be impossible to dodge." Ash explained. For the next hour the two worked on concentrating the energy, and then Ash threw leaves, cones, and rocks in the air for Tyche to aim at. While it wasn't perfected yet, it was going at a much faster rate than teleport. Ash gave it a day or so until it was mastered enough that it would only need a few minutes refinement every day, which was the level her other moves were at.

Ash and Tyche were about to try once more to speed up her charging time to under a second when they heard a caw. Flying straight at them from the direction they had been firing in was a Pidgey, albeit one that looked maddeningly close to evolution. Apparently one of the disarming voices hadn't been completely stopped by its target and had gone on to hit the now enraged Pokemon.

"Teleport Tyche!" Ash shouted, diving to the side himself. The Ralts did as he directed, but the Pidgey simply readjusted and continued straight at the little Pokemon. Ash quickly analyzed the situation: Tyche was currently between the Pidgey and a tree, so if he timed this right…

"Tyche, teleport on my signal… now!" He shouted. Immediately the psychic fairy type did as he said, reappearing about four meters behind the flying Pokemon, who promptly crashed into the tree, catching its beak in the bark.

"Confusion!" Ash shouted. Tyche quickly obeyed, but the Pidgey had by that point gotten free and dodged the attack. "Confusion again!" When the attack was dodged just as easily the second time, Ash changed tactics. "Try disarming voice!" Tyche hummed for a second, and then sang as the fairy move shot out of her mouth. While the Pidgey tried to dodge, the attack followed it and hit the tiny bird hard on its side. For the next few minutes the battle continued, with the Pidgey attacking with incredibly powerful moves while Tyche kept on teleporting and shooting off disarming voices whenever it had sufficient time. Thankfully, due to their training, Tyche held out and the Pidgey finally slammed into the same tree it had earlier, this time in a dead faint.

Just as Ash was about to rush to his Pokemon's side, a noise came from the tree. Out popped a Shroomish. Ash hadn't heard of them being in the Viridian Forest before, so they must have been a recent migration. Ash inspected the Pokemon even as Tyche tensed up for another battle. The Shroomish looked upset, which was likely due to the repeated battering that his or her home took. It was short, armless, and stocky, with a mostly greyish-yellow body except for some green spots and a green underbelly.

"Confusion, Tyche!" Ash said, wanting to start off the battle right. The mushroom Pokemon wasn't able to dodge in time and gritted its teeth against the onslaught, before shooting out what looked like tiny yellow dots. "Stun spore…" Ash muttered to himself, before saying in a slightly louder tone "Avoid those yellow spots Tyche!" However, this quickly proved to be an impossible order. The grass Pokemon was regularly sending out more spores and when it wasn't coating the forest floor in them, it was trying to absorb health from Tyche.

Before long the Ralts found herself accidently teleporting in a place covered in stun spores, and immediately she slowed and seemed to be struggling to move at all. "Keep using Confusion, Tyche!" Ash ordered. He also began inching towards his backpack—this, he had decided, was a Pokemon he wanted. Tyche followed his instructions flawlessly, hitting the Shroomish with two Confusion attacks in a row even as the mushroom Pokemon coated her in leech seeds. Ash had to act quickly or this battle would be very one sided, and not in his favor. Just as he finally got a pokeball in his hand, the Shroomish decided that it was time to release a new attack—tiny seeds began to rain onto Tyche in controlled bursts, and the Ralts whimpered as the attack weakened her. He had to act now—Tyche wouldn't last much longer, and the stun spore was making it hard for her to attack the grass type at all. Carefully taking aim, he threw the pokeball right at Shroomish, and the ball connected, absorbing the grass type Pokemon inside it. For one, two, three seconds it shook violently, before finally stopping and clicking, signifying a successful capture.

Ash immediately dropped to his hands and knees, exhausted from the two successive battles, before signaling Tyche to come over. She did, and Ash gave her an Oran berry as he began the arduous process of removing all the leech seeds from her skin. Unfortunately he didn't have a paralyze heal or Cheri berry, so he would just have to wash the Ralts off and then wait for the effects of the stun spore to leave her system.

After finishing cleaning Tyche, he set up camp. It was obvious that they weren't going to be able to resume their journey until the next day.

Once everything was set up and Tyche had been given another Oran berry, Ash finally prepared to open the Shroomish's pokeball.

As the glistening white light dissipated, the mushroom Pokemon again became visible, obviously mildly damaged but not to the level of Tyche.

"Hello Shroomish. I'm your new trainer, Ash. This is Tyche—she's the one who you were fighting earlier, and she is my starting Pokemon. Do you understand me?" The little mushroom immediately nodded the affirmative, which surprised and pleased Ash. Many wild Pokemon didn't really understand human language, but those who did tended to be the ones who were regularly challenging trainers and who wanted to be captured. "Okay, good. Now, this is called a Pokedex. I'm going to point it at you, and it'll give me some basic information about your species, okay?" Again, the Shroomish seemed quite amiable to the suggestion. Meanwhile, because it was no longer a battle, the little Ralts had let her timid nature take over, and was hiding behind a tree as she watched the proceedings. Ash decided he would deal with that after he found out some more about the Shroomish, which was admittedly a Pokemon he hadn't spent much time studying in school, though that was mostly because he hadn't thought he'd come into contact with one so soon.

"This Pokemon is a Shroomish, or the mushroom Pokemon, who primarily feeds on decomposing leaves as well as other live Pokemon via absorption attacks or leech seed. This Shroomish is male and has the ability 'poison heal', as well as the hidden ability 'quick feet'. It knows the moves absorb, tackle, stun spore, and leech seed, and the egg move bullet seed." The more the Pokedex spoke the wider Ash grinned. Not only would feeding Tyche's new teammate be exceedingly easy, but the Shroomish also had both an incredibly useful primary ability and hidden ability, and its egg move was incredibly powerful for a Shroomish so young. Ash had really lucked out.

"That's great, Shroomish! You're really powerful! We'll have to figure out a way to get you poisoned before battles so that you can use your abilities though. Now, how about a name?" This time, the Shroomish positively jumped in glee. Given how alike the Shroomish and his mom's Mimey acted, Ash was beginning to suspect that the Shroomish had a Jolly nature, which would be really great for calming Tyche because of her emotion sensing. In fact, even though she was still staying back she'd already come out from behind the tree.

"Now… I want to keep with the same theme that I used with Tyche's name. So how about Ares? No? Well, then how about Mars? Jupiter? Chronos? How about Bacchus?" The Shroomish, which had looked decidedly displeased at all of Ash's previous choices, finally perked up. Ash considered the name. Bacchus had been a mythical giant Vileplume who was known for its powerful hypnotic poison as well as its continually jovial behavior, so it was a good fit. "Bacchus it is!"

By this point Tyche had gotten over her earlier fear and was now inspecting Bacchus closely. This was obviously making the Shroomish slightly uncomfortable, so Ash distracted him by feeding him a Kebia berry.

Shortly after all three of them were ready for bed. Bacchus shot some leech seeds into the surrounding foliage to replenish his energy by the next day, and Tyche took her favored position lying half on top of Ash's head. As he began to drift off, Ash seriously contemplated the possibility of getting a hard hat to deal with the weight.


	5. Pewter City

The next day found Ash, Bacchus, and Tyche trampling through the forest. They had spent the morning battling every Pokemon they came across. Tyche needed to work on her disarming voice, and Bacchus's bullet seed wasn't as powerful or accurate as it could have been. Ash also wanted to work on making absorb more powerful and turning it into a full mega drain. Whenever he needed a rest he also had them practicing at half strength at each other so that he could tell how they were improving.

Ash also made sure to constantly praise the two Pokemon and keep them entertained, especially because recent research out of Kalos was indicating that happier Pokemon did significantly better than others in battle, responding to their trainer faster and more accurately than they could otherwise be expected to.

The morning passed in this manner, and by noon Ash was looking for a good place to rest and recoup. He'd just found a suitable clearing when he heard rustling to his right. It didn't sound like any Pokemon Ash had heard before. Just as he was began to turn for a better look a flash of silver slashed down just in front of his face—someone had almost sliced him in half with what looked like a sword!

"Hey!" Ash shouted. "Watch out! You almost hit me!"

"I apologize. I am Samurai, and I wish to challenge you to battle. I have already challenged and lost against three other trainers from Pallet—A trainer with a feisty Pichu, one with an overpowered Tyrogue, and another with an unbelievably well trained Sunkern. It is time I try again to beat a Pallet Town novice, and that novice will be you! How about two one on one battles?" The boy said as he sheathed his blade. Ash was unsure if he wanted to go against the Samurai; he had just almost stabbed Ash after all, and for some inexplicable reason already knew that Ash was a Pallet native. But in the end Ash's desire to go against another trainer—whose battles were always more difficult than those in the wild—made him agree, and he got into battle position, sending forth Tyche to battle first. The Samurai in turn released a powerful looking Pinsir, causing Ash to feel worried for the first time—he hadn't been expected a Pinsir: they weren't thought to be native to the forest or a starter Pokemon, and they were extremely powerful. Samurai had either already traveled a great distance or had gotten the bug type as a gift.

"Watch out for the pincers, Tyche, and try to wear it down with Disarming Voice." Ash ordered softly. His Ralts prepared to do as he commanded. Across the field, the Samurai was shouting his own orders at his Pokemon.

"Tackle Pinsir! There's no way you'll lose—Ralts are psychic types!" Ash winced—obviously the boy didn't remember the entirety of the Ralts description, or else he'd know that the Pokemon's fairy typing canceled out that particular weakness. Regardless, tackle wasn't a bug type move, so the entire thought process was wrong.

Given their orders, both Pokemon attacked, Tyche shooting off a quick disarming voice before immediately teleporting—a response which had become almost instinctual—while the Pinsir attempted to charge her. The battle was remarkably short due to this—Ash had yet to come across any person who could effectively counter his current teleportation technique (Tyche's level had finally overcome the results of String Shot), though Bacchus's ability to do so with Stun Spore did forewarn him he'd need to be prepared for that. Regardless, today the technique was still nearly foolproof: Pinsir had yet to hit Tyche at all, while Tyche's move had hit. Over and over again the same situation repeated itself, and before long it became clear that the match was a foregone conclusion.

When it became obvious that Pinsir was no longer able to battle both trainers recalled their Pokemon. As Ash sent forward Bacchus Samurai released a Metapod. Ash stared. He knew that some Metapod, particularly those caught as Caterpie, were able to learn tackle, but even then—a Metapod? Really?

"Another type disadvantage, young trainer? Perhaps I'll win after all." Ash chose to ignore the Samurai, particularly because now the sword wielder couldn't even win any more—the best he could hope for was a tie. "Harden Metapod! He won't be able to do any damage then!" Ash considered this. While it was true that harden would reduce the effect of Bullet Seed and Tackle, it wouldn't hurt Bacchus's other moves at all. He was beginning to regret agreeing to fight Samurai—his breadth of knowledge left a lot to be desired.

"Leech Seed, then Absorb until it faints. Try to turn your Absorb into Mega Drain if you can." Ash murmured, just loud enough so that his Pokemon would hear him.

"Don't you know that you're supposed to be telling your Pokemon what to do?" Shouted Samurai from the other side of the battlefield. Yes, Ash was definitely regretting this battle. Even Joey had realized what he was doing by whispering. Between them the Samurai's Metapod began to harden, even as Bacchus's leech seed hit home and he began to use absorb as well. By the end of the battle the move definitely looked more like a mega drain than absorb, so Ash decided that the battle had been at least helpful with that, but it had been completely one sided, with Samurai simply shouting Harden over and over—obviously his Metapod was not one that had retained its ability to Tackle.

The battle did not end on a particularly good note, as the Samurai was upset over his loss and proceeded to try to berate Ash over not commanding his Pokemon in battle, so halfway through the bug specialist's rant Ash just turned and walked away, ignoring the screaming about dishonor behind him.

The rest of the day progressed notably better, as, after a particularly harsh battle with a Pidgeotto where the bird had gotten a number of critical hits off, Ash began teaching Tyche lucky chant, and Bacchus finished refining Absorb into Mega Drain. Ash also had Bacchus continually shooting Bullet Seed at random fauna in the hopes of increasing the amount of times the grass Pokemon could do it without pausing.

Just as Ash's watch beeped, signaling that it was 15:00, he finally exited the forest. In front of him, laid out on the large grey background of Mt. Moon, sat Pewter City, ready to be taken by storm.

A few minutes later Ash arrived at the local Pokemon Center. After checking in his Pokemon, and double checking that this particular Center did not have a skylight, Ash made his way to the Pewter City gym. Once there, he signed in with the receptionist for a battle slot at 10:00 the next day. He spent the next few hours wandering around the town. After visiting all of the houses with open doors—the universal sign for 'trainers welcome'—Ash made his way to the Pewter City Museum. He wandered around the museum for the next few hours, reading about fossils and the new technique scientists had come up with to revive them, but eventually ran out of exhibits to look at.

By 18:00 he was back at the Pokemon Center, where he picked up his fully rehabilitated Pokemon and went to the cafeteria for a meal. There he saw and sat with another classmate, this time Ben, and they started to fill each other in on their personal journey.

"Yeah, Needles evolved into a Beedrill a little less than halfway through the Viridian Forest. He'd already become a Kakuna by the time we reached the end of Route 1. I figured having a fast evolving Pokemon would help me out, and so far it has—I beat Stacey and Joey in the forest!"

"I beat Joey too, but I never ran into Stacey. She chose the Igglybuff, right?" 

"Yep! But a couple of poison stings defeated it—it's weak to that, you know? Hey, we should have a Pokemon battle! Only one on one obviously, because I'm still looking for my second Pokemon, but it should still be exciting!" Ash quickly agreed and the two made their way out to the training ground neighboring the Pokemon Center. Ash sent out Tyche and Ben his Beedrill, and the two battled for a time, purposefully not trying their hardest, just wanting to work on improving their Pokemon's skills, but eventually Tyche held out, and the two went back in to give the Beedrill to Pewter City's Nurse Joy.

"What makes them all look the same anyway? The Nurse Joys I mean?" Ash asked as he and Ben walked to the back of the Pokemon Center where the lodging was.

"A genetic mutation that effects the mother's haploid gametes. It overpowers whatever DNA the father contributes and basically makes a copy of itself—creating what is basically a clone. That's why all Nurse Joys only have girls. It's the same for Officer Jennys. It's why they have similar personalities too. Actually, Ditto does basically the reverse." Ben explained. Ash, suitably impressed by Ben's explanation, expressed his credulity, before the two split off to go to their respective rooms. It was about as small as the one in Viridian City, but at least this time it included a window, not that Ash spent much time admiring it. He, Tyche, and Bacchus got in their preferred positions and almost instantly fell asleep—journeying, as it turns out, was tiring.

The next morning the trainer and his Pokemon made its way down for breakfast and then talked to Ash's mother for a time over the phone. Ash spent the next half hour tracking down Ben and had his Beedrill inflict Bacchus with poison in preparation for the day's gym battle, something Ash had forgotten about the day before. Finally, with an hour to spare, Ash was ready.

The Pewter City gym was a rather large establishment—it had to be, as its gym leaders were well known for using Onix. Ash hoped that the current leader, Brock, didn't have one of those in his League approved first gym team–even if you had a type advantage, they were huge enough that often mere brute force was enough to win them the battle. However, before he got the honor of battling the gym leader he had to defeat the two GAs, or Gym Assistants. Comparatively weaker than the Gym Leader, they were there to ensure that the Gym Leader's time was spent "in the most effective manner possible", as Ash's old battle textbook put it.

The first battle between Ash and a young trainer named Kevin was a joke. He had a Geodude, but it was barely trained and Kevin admitted that he had started when Ash had, so he still had a ways to go. The second match was not nearly as easy as the first, but when Tyche's confusion finally made the Binacle dizzy the battle might as well have been over. While it took a full two minutes for the Binacle to finally faint after the lucky hit, most of its attacks after that point either didn't hit anything or hit itself and Tyche was free to focus all her energy on attacking.

Now Ash stood across the battlefield from Brock. Brock was smirking—Ash was apparently the sixteenth person to challenge him for their first badge this cycle, which wasn't surprising as the Rock Gym was the second most commonly used gym by beginning trainers, but only six had beaten him on their first try. Ash firmed his jaw as he set his sights on being the seventh.

"Come on out Bacchus." He whispered.

"To the battlefield, Rhyhorn!" Brock shouted. Ash grinned—the spikes Pokemon, being a rock and ground type, was extremely weak to the moves that Bacchus specialized in. Judging by Brocks expression, he realized it too. "As this is your first Gym battle it will be one on one! The trainer with the first Pokemon to be called fainted by the ref, Dave, will lose. If you win, you will be allowed to choose a new Pokemon from your Gym leader's or professor's selection of First Gym Pokemon, and obtain one more, either from the wild or as a gift. Is that understood?"

"Yes!"

"Then let's battle! Rhyhorn, Horn Attack!" Brock cried.

"Leech Seed and try to get out of the way." Ash whispered.

The Rhyhorn charged at the Shroomish, but as it neared the mushroom Pokemon managed to not only attach the Leech Seeds to its opponent but also leap out of the way—Quick Feet was already showing its use, and Ash was glad there wasn't a rule about having to fully heal your Pokemon prior to battle in this gym.

"Try Fury Attack, Rhyhorn!" Brock shouted.

"Stun Spore then Mega Drain Bacchus. Dodge what you can." Ash ordered.

The gym leader's Pokemon immediately began to charge at Bacchus again, but this time it put more emphasis on speed and quick recovery than power. Bacchus in turn sprinkled the area with stun spore, before nimbly hopping out of the way of the first two attacks while using Mega Drain on the ground/rock type, however the third and the fourth got the little Pokemon. Thankfully, the poison, Leech Seeds, and Mega Drain all added up to no visible damage on Bacchus, and Ash grinned while the mushroom Pokemon, realizing that victory was imminent, smirked. Across the field, Brock gritted his teeth, then—

"Flamethrower Rhyhorn!" Immediately a burst of fire came out from Rhyhorn's mouth. Bacchus didn't even have a chance to dodge and was hit head on by the super effective move.

"Bacchus!" Ash cried, breaking his own rule about being quiet in trainer battles. He almost ran forward, but held back when he realized that would be considered him forfeiting. Thankfully, the jolly Pokemon was damaged but alert, and leapt up at the Rhyhorn, using mega drain without even having to be ordered. Ash grinned as the Pokemon used some of Rhyhorn's energy to heal the some of the wounds that the same Pokemon had inflicted. The Flamethrower had done a lot of damage, but Bacchus was currently working with three recovery methods, two of which were constant, so they were doing fine.

After one more Mega Drain the battle was done. The Rhyhorn had tried to get off another Flamethrower, but the Stun Spore temporarily paralyzed it, so the Rhyhorn wasn't able to open its maw in time.

After recalling his Pokemon, and waiting for Ash to do the same, Brock stepped down from his side and shook Ash's hand. "That was a good battle, kid. Can I ask—where did you get a Shroomish? I haven't seen one of those before."

"In the Viridian Forest—I think they're the result of the recent migration. Can _I_ ask who has beaten you besides me?" Ash responded. He really wanted to know how he was doing compared to his classmates.

"From Pallet? Well, on the first try only two did: the professor's grandson and a girl named Leaf. That one was a surprise, let me tell you. No one has managed to beat me on their first try with a Sunkern before." Brock laughed, apparently remembering what must have been an incredibly unusual battle.

"Yeah, Leaf's like that." Ash smiled, remembering his former classmate. "She really loves Sunkern, you know? Thinks they get a bad rap."

"Well, if every Sunkern trainer was as good as she was, maybe that would change. Hey—I'm done until the afternoon. How about you come back to my house and I'll give you a few tips about the Cerulean gym." Brock offered, gesturing to the gym entrance.

"Really? That'd be awesome! I know that the gym got a new leader recently—Misty, I think—but I don't have any more information than that." Ash grinned. Getting extra info, from another Gym Leader no less, would be extremely helpful in his next battle.

"Yeah, I always try to give trainers some advice when I have time." Brock answered, gesturing for Ash to follow him out the gym.

The two agreeably went over to Brock's house, and he spent the next hour or so explaining to Ash why he should make sure to take Misty seriously—even with her type disadvantage:

"She may be a new trainer, but she tries much harder than her sisters ever did. Cerulean Gym is known as an easy starting Gym now, but I'm pretty sure that'll change in the next few years—not because her Pokemon are too overpowered, mind, she'll still use the league regulation team, it's just that she has a knack for thinking through how to defeat Pokemon her water types have a weakness to."

Ash was extremely thankful for the help, and as recompense helped the rock type specialist with making lunch for his siblings. Ash smiled as the little ones ran all over the room, but still made sure to listen to whatever their older brother said. Brock explained that he was only temporarily filling in for his dad at the gym—he had to deal with a rampaging Onix nearby—but that Brock usually spent most of his time at home with his siblings while he trained to be a Pokemon breeder. While Ash's own aspirations took him down a different route, he was glad that Brock was able to achieve his dreams right in his own home town.

After lunch Ash left for the Pokemon Center. He still had to heal up Bacchus, and he needed to contact Professor Oak about his next Pokemon. After a quick chat with Nurse Joy, during which he turned over the Shroomish's pokeball for treatment, he went to the waiting room where the video-phone kiosks were. After searching for the Professor's number on his Pokedex, he punched in the corresponding buttons on the machine and within seconds the screen lit up—with the back of the Professor's head.

"Hello Mr. Ketchum! And how are you doing today?"

"I think you have the wrong camera professor." Ash winced—the Professor had always been rather absent minded.

"What? Oh. Oh! One moment please." The Professor pressed a few buttons and the video went out of focus and then changed, this time showing Professor Oak's face instead of his hair.

"Hi Professor! Guess what? I just completed my first gym!" Ash grinned, still giddy about his victory even though hours had passed. While it wasn't something he'd worried overmuch about, first gym league teams being overwhelmingly considered a breeze to get through, it was still nice to officially have the first of eight badges needed for the Indigo League.

"That's wonderful Ash! You're the fourth from Pallet to get it, you know, although Anthony and Rick had to try twice. I'm guessing you want your next Pokemon?" Oak smiled. It was obvious that the man loved his job.

"Yep!"

"Alright then. There should be a little scanning device on the side of the—yes, that's it—so all you have to do is hold up the badge to the—and there we go! Your first badge is verified, and you can choose your second selection Pokemon." Again the professor hit a bunch of keys and all of a sudden a new screen appeared, this one showing a selection of eight pokeballs, with four empty spots scattered between them. Only the pokeballs had name tags in front of them. From left to right they read: Burmy, Makuhita, Bunnelby, Zigzagoon, Zubat, Starly, Spinarak, and Smeargle.

"Can I ask what the others have chosen Professor?" Ash asked. He wanted to get a better view of his immediate opposition before he chose.

"Of Course! Of Course! Let's see… Gary chose the Noibat I had gotten from Kalos, Leaf picked out the Bidoof from Sinnoh, Anthony got the Swinub that was born right here in the Corral, and Rick chose the Seedot I caught just last month."

With the exception of Leaf's rather eclectic choice, Ash could see that all of his classmates choices would end up becoming really powerful—he wouldn't want to go up against a Noivern, a Mamoswine, or a Shiftry. Feeling better informed, he turned back to the selection that was left. Right away Ash was able to eliminate some choices—Zubat had to be trained primarily at night, so that was out, Burmy was at basically the same level as the bug Pokemon in Viridian Forest, so that was also a no, same for Bunnelby and Zigzagoon but with bug replaced with normal. Makuhita and its evolution Hariyama could be rather powerful Pokemon, but he'd already beaten the Rock Gym, which is where they would have been the most useful. Out of the remaining choices he was quickly drawn to the Starly.

Staraptor—Starly's final evolution—was an incredibly powerful powerhouse, and unlike Pidgeot it learned a great many moves naturally without the need for expensive TMs. Further, he could use the small bird Pokemon to train up his Bacchus, who wasn't yet very good at beating Pokemon he had a weakness to. Choice made, Ash pointed out the pokeball he wanted to the Professor, who told him to log in to the PC in the corner. Ash hung up and went over to the giant box, and moments later a brand new pokeball, with his equally new partner, was in his hands.

A few minutes later found Ash sitting cross legged on the training ground beside the Pokemon Center, with Bacchus and Tyche on either side of him as they prepared to welcome their new teammate. Taking a deep breath, Ash pressed the pokeball's button.

Out popped a small gray bird with a pointed orange beak. The Starly looked around and spotted the other two Pokemon. Immediately the small bird got into attack position.

"Hey, hey… it's okay, Starly. I'm your new trainer." Judging by the bird's lack of immediate recognition, it seemed unlikely the bird had spent much time with humans before, so Ash gave up on speaking and held his hands up in a gesture of non-aggression. The Starly hesitated, and then backed down. Ash signaled Bacchus to approach the Starly slowly, feeling that the type advantage Starly had would help in keeping it calm.

The Shroomish slowly hopped up to Starly, cooing softly. Ash didn't know what the Pokemon was communicating, but whatever it was further calmed Starly, allowing Ash to approach it as well. Ash was surprised over the Starly's behavior—most lab Pokemon had been exposed to many humans before, so this one was likely a recent capture.

Carefully, Ash pulled out his Pokedex. He showed it to the Starly, and when the little bird didn't react to it in fear, he opened it. At the noise of the Pokedex starting up the Starly hopped back a few steps, but a few noises from Bacchus calmed it again. Ash aimed the machine at the bird and pressed 'observe'.

"This Pokemon is a Starly, or the Starling Pokemon. Nonmigratory, the bird primarily relies on its ability to blend in with the winter sky and attacking in numbers to catch prey. This Starly is male and has the ability 'keen eye', as well as the hidden ability 'reckless'. It knows the moves Tackle, Growl, Quick Attack, and Wing Attack, as well as the egg move Steel Wing." Ash grinned. Reckless was a rare nature for Starly to have, but the egg move Steel Wing was even rarer. It was likely that the bird's father was a Skarmory, which wasn't exactly a common occurrence.

Inching closer, Ash finally dared to reach his hand out. The Starly inspected it, and finally assented to allowing his head to be scratched. Ash spent the next few minutes trying to get the Starly to be as comfortable as possible about his presence. He then had Tyche and Bacchus have a practice battle, with the former attempting to learn a new move called Magical Leaf while the latter tried to refine his Tackle into a Headbutt.

As the training battle waged on Ash split the time between shouting tips to his fighting Pokemon and talking to Starly to try to increase the starling bird's vocabulary knowledge while petting it and feeding it so the little Pokemon would begin to trust him.

Ash stayed outside until 16:00, but by then he felt the itch to go back on the road. There was no point in staying in Pewter City any longer. Decision made, Ash returned each of his Pokemon and retrieved his backpack, before heading out.


	6. Mt Moon

Route 3 was rife with much of the same wildlife as Route 1, but also had Zubat and Ekans rustling around in the grass beside the Rattata and Pidgey. As Ash made his way through the route he also saw a mother Arbok in the distance and ran into a Jigglypuff, but he had no interest in capturing either. He idly wondered whether Stacey's Igglybuff had evolved yet.

By evening Ash was nearly at the small narrow bridge which led the way into Mt. Moon. He stared at the sun setting behind the bridge—it was beautiful in an ethereal sort of way, and he felt transfixed. As he stared a Clefairy popped out of a cave and hopped across the bridge holding a small glistening stone which shone against the sunset.

For a few seconds there was peace, and Ash felt completely at rest. And then Ash heard screaming. Ash snapped to, sprinting across the bridge straight to the shrieking. As he arrived at the other side a flock of Zubat came into view behind a jagged rock formation. They were obviously hovering over the screamer.

Ash quickly released Tyche. "Confusion the Zubat! Hit as many as possible!" Within the minute, most of the Zubat had ran off, and it didn't take long for the rest of the decidedly weak Pokemon to decide that fighting the Ralts wasn't worth the hassle and run off themselves.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! That was by far the best rescue I've ever had! Those Zubat were attacking me and attacking me, and you stopped them!" The man that had been being attacked by the Zubat leapt up and hugged Ash in one surprisingly graceful motion, squeezing the teen in what could only be described as a vice grip that Ash couldn't get out of.

"Um… yeah, of course sir. Do you have to be rescued often? Also, why were the Zubat attacking you in the first place?" Ash asked, finally squirming out of the man's arms.

"Well, no, not too often—I mean, kind of—I never got three badges, or even two, but I need to go a lot of places, so sometimes I need help. And the Zubat—the Zubat are agitated because of what's happening in Mt. Moon. Also, I'm not a sir—I'm Scientist Seymour, got it? Scientist Seymour, not sir."

"What's happening in Mt. Moon?" Ash asked.

"Here—let me show you." Seymour grabbed Ash's arm and dragged him into the cave. The problem was immediately obvious—all along the tunnel were lights, which would completely mess up the mountain's ecosystem.

"Did you do this?!" Ash shouted, whipping around to look at Seymour.

"No, no! I would never! I'm trying to protect the Pokemon here! I was researching the Moon Stone when I saw this—I have a theory, see, that all Pokemon have come from space, and how did they come, you ask. They came via the moon stone!" Seymour grinned, apparently quite proud of his theory and having completely forgot about the original question. Ash stared at the scientist for a few seconds, absolutely stunned, before shaking his head and refocusing on the lights.

"Well then, who put them up?" Ash asked as they moved further into the tunnel.

"Meowth!" a screech came from up ahead.

Ash's heart stopped. He only knew one Meowth, and it was a pet of two Rocket Grunts. He immediately gestured for the scientist to stop speaking. If this really was Team Rocket, then it was important that the two kept quiet. Ash silently let out Bacchus. He didn't feel comfortable letting out Starly yet, so he'd have to make due with only two Pokemon. They inched forward, and sure enough there were Jessie and James, who appeared to be digging into the mountain, as well as their Meowth, who was intimidating a Clefairy holding what was clearly a small moon stone. That, Ash felt, could not stand.

"Get away from that Clefairy! Tyche, Bacchus, attack!" Ash shouted sprinting forward with his Pokemon right beside him. The Ralts shot a disarming voice straight at Team Rocket's Pokemon, while Bacchus charged forward, headbutting the Meowth and causing it to fall back. The Meowth turned and hissed at the Rocket Grunts, who dropped their shovels and pulled out a pokeball each.

"Ekans! Bind that pesky Shroomish!"

"Koffing! Smog your opponent!"

By this point Ash had gotten a hold of his emotions again and his field of vision narrowed to the battle. He quieted, not wanting to give away his Pokemon's moves. "Confusion on the Koffing Tyche, and Bacchus, use Leech Seed then Stun Spore on the Ekans." Both Pokemon followed his orders flawlessly, but Bacchus was bound in the process. Tyche was able to dodge the smog with teleport though, so at least Ash didn't have to worry about that. "Great! Now use another Confusion on Koffing, and Mega Drain on Ekans!"

The female Rocket Grunt growled, before shouting "Ekans! Acid on Shroomish!" James was also ordering his Pokemon, yelling at Koffing to Sludge the Ralts.

Ash grinned as the Acid attack hit while the Sludge attack missed. His mushroom Pokemon had just gotten a big boost and his Ralts was still teleporting all over the place, being careful to avoid the poisonous air. Koffing meanwhile had become confused and attacked Ekans in his disorientation.

At this point both Rocket Grunts recalled their Pokemon and darted through the tunnel. Ash started after them, but stopped when Seymour shouted "Wait Ash! The Meowth has gone after the Clefairy!" He spun quickly around, running as hard as he could to where he remembered the other Clefairy going earlier. There—on the bridge the two Pokemon were facing off, but because Clefairy wouldn't let go of the moonstone it wasn't able to effectively fight and a lucky swipe by the Meowth forced the Clefairy off the bridge and into the air, where gravity quickly took effect. There was no other option—Ash released Starly.

"Catch the Pokemon Starly!" Ash screamed. He didn't think the fairy type could survive impact with the ground; the bridge was significantly higher than the bottom of the ravine and the Clefairy had no way of slowing down. The starling bird Pokemon thankfully understood his trainer's cry and sped towards the Clefairy as quickly as he could, at the last moment managing to get under the wild pokemon. He couldn't stop the descent, but he did manage to slow it down and both Pokemon crashed into the ground, slightly damaged but still in one piece. Still, the fight wasn't over yet.

The Meowth had jumped from the bridge and used its superior balance to land without injury, so it was of vital importance that Ash got down there as quickly as possible to stop the cat from doing any more damage to the Clefairy or to his Starly. Ash quickly recalled Bacchus and Tyche, who were both having trouble keeping up, and skidded down the hill as quickly as he could, shouting "Starly! Steel Wing!" as he did so.

The bird Pokemon responded to his voice and started to focus power into his wing, but the Meowth was on him too fast and the Starly cried out in pain, abandoning the attack.

"Starly!" Ash screamed. He finally reached the bottom of the hill and dashed forward as he pulled out Tyche's pokeball and released her. "Tyche, use Disarming Voice then Confusion!" she did as he said, but it was obvious the lack of positive emotion was beginning to affect her. Ash had completely forgotten than she was a feeling Pokemon, and often preformed worse around negative moods, and the Ralts was certainly feeling the effects.

"Hang in there Tyche! Disarming Voice again! Starly, try Wing Attack!" Tyche followed his orders and thankfully Starly did too. Because it was a flying type move, Starly was able to charge the necessary energy much faster, and moments after Tyche's disarming voice hit Starly's attack did too. Meanwhile the Clefairy was determinedly hopping up the other side of the ravine, apparently utterly focused on its mission. Scientist Seymour was a few steps behind it and doing all he could to keep up, though Ash didn't know why. A few attacks later the Meowth finally ran off, and Ash returned Tyche and Starly before dashing after the scientist and fairy Pokemon. He didn't know why Seymour was still following it, but he wanted to make sure that the scientist wouldn't get hurt again—Seymour seemed a bit accident prone.

The chase finally neared its finish as the Clefairy entered another cave, with both scientist and trainer trailing behind it. A few turns later and they arrived in a large echoing cavern, where dozens of Clefairy were congregated around a monstrous moonstone just below a skylight, apparently arranging many smaller moonstones in a specific pattern.

"Wow." Ash murmured as he gazed up at the blue grey sphere. It almost seemed to pulse under his gaze.

"Yeah." Seymour agreed. Both stared in awe as the Clefairy added the last miniature moonstone to a ring around the bottom of the orb. Immediately the smaller stones began to glow. Around them the Clefairy began to dance in perfect precision.

"I don't think we belong here. I think this is just a place for Pokemon—just a place for the Clefairy." Ash said. The scientist looked conflicted, before finally nodding in agreement. While it was obvious Seymour wished to stay, it was equally as clear that this wasn't a place that was meant for humans. Just as they turned to leave, a rope appeared, having been dropped down from the natural skylight. This attack style was the signature of only one team.

Sure enough, Jessie and James both rappelled down, releasing their poison types as they did so. Ash jerked forward, wanting to help, but before he could do anything the Clefairy turned to the introducers and began to move their fingers back in forth, stilling Ash's movements. Immediately all of Team Rocket began to sway in time to the Clefairy's digits.

"Metronome" Ash murmured, recognizing Clefairy's specialty move even if he'd never seen it preformed en masse before. As the Clefairy continued to move their hands rhythmically you could feel the power saturating the air. As the Clefairy swayed for the last time a giant burst of energy flew from them, aimed straight at the Rocket Grunts and their Pokemon. When the beam dissipated Team Rocket had disappeared, but Ash could hear them screaming in obvious pain in the distance. Ash turned back to the Clefairy, incredibly grateful that he and Seymour were not seen as threats, and watched as pieces of the large moonstone began to break off and fall onto, and then into, some of the nearby Clefairy. Before his very eyes he saw at least a dozen Pokemon evolve, and he gaped in disbelief and wonder as the Clefairy grew and changed, their small wings getting larger as the rest of their body doubled in size and the newly evolved Pokemon shouted "Clefable!" reveling in their transition. Cleffa and unevolved Clefairy quickly swarmed their recently evolved brethren, blocking them from the sight of the interloping humans.

Both Ash and Seymour carefully inched their way out of the cave and made their way to Route 3. It was late at night by that point, and by the time they'd made it back to the road Ash was yawning at about every third step.

"I think… I think I'm going to go back to Pewter City." Seymour told him. "I mean—I've spent so long here, trying to prove my theory, but you're right. The Clefairy and Clefable just want to live their lives in peace and I should let them do that. I just… I just don't know what I'm going to do now." The poor man looked close to tears. It was obvious that giving up his life's dream was hard on him and Ash couldn't even guess what that felt like: he didn't even know if he could give up his dream of becoming champion. "Don't worry though! I'll tell the Pewter City Police Department about the lights—they'll get them down in no time. You just worry about getting to Cerulean City, okay?" Ash nodded. Oddly enough, in the short time he'd known the man his opinion of him had totally changed. It was obvious the scientist cared a lot for Pokemon, and Ash had no doubt that whatever Seymour put his mind to next would benefit the world in some way.

"It was nice meeting you Seymour. I'm sure you'll do awesome in whatever you decide to do." Ash smiled.

"Thank you, Ash, that means a lot to me. I guess I'll see you… eventually." Scientist Seymour hugged Ash one last time and then turned to Route 3 and began to march. Ash thought about pointing out that the scientist could wait until morning, but he kind of doubted Seymour would listen. Ash was ready to pass out though, so he quickly set up the bare essentials of camp, had some Tauros jerky, and released his Pokemon to eat and sleep themselves before falling into a deep and thankfully very refreshing sleep.

By the noon the next day Ash still hadn't moved from the campsite. When he'd awoken several hours earlier Ash found an Officer Jenny looming over him, and he'd spent the next considerable length of time being interrogated. The constant reiteration of facts also began to depress Ash as he concentrated more and more on his failings—he had jumped in without a plan, he'd gotten so completely into the battle that he hadn't noticed Meowth or the Clefairy sneaking off, and he'd completely forgotten about Tyche's physiology—in two ways! First by not utilizing her sensing capabilities, and second by forgetting about her emotional empathy issue. The entire time he and Officer Jenny talked these thoughts ruminated in his head, making him feel worse and worse.

Not only that, but Ash had also finally remembered that when the two Rocket grunts had escaped from police all the way back in Viridian City they had had to leave behind their Ekans and Koffing, and yet by the time Ash had run into them again the day before they'd somehow managed to either reobtain them or get two new ones. Officer Jenny was also interested in finding out why that was the case, but Ash didn't have any answers to give.

Thankfully, the day wasn't a total waste. After verifying that he wasn't colluding with the known criminals, Officer Jenny had allowed Ash's Pokemon to train as they talked. He'd tasked Tyche with mastering Magical Leaf, Bacchus with finishing refining his Tackle into a Headbutt, and Starly with speeding up his Steel Wing attack significantly. However, even training had not gone entirely well: because of Ash's depression and self-berating, Tyche found it impossible to concentrate, and he'd had to return her after less than an hour. After Officer Jenny left, Ash worked to calm himself down and then made lunch for him and his Pokemon. Thankfully, he'd done a good enough job at the former that his Ralts was able to sit with the rest of them, and none of them had complaints about the latter.

After debating for a while, Ash decided that instead of trying to head straight to Cerulean he'd explore a bit and try to see what he could find in Mt. Moon. He knew that many trainers often found little bits and pieces of valuable stones and similar in Mt. Moon, which was almost definitely why the two Rocket grunts were there in the first place. To prepare, he sent out all of his Pokemon—Tyche to practice sensing if any Pokemon were near, Bacchus to practice leech seeding rocks, which wouldn't give him any nutrients but would improve the ability of his move to effect any Pokemon, and Starly to practice flying indoors.

Starly was improving in his speech recognition rapidly. Apparently the Starly had decided that he would understand everything that Ash said, and was doing his best to brute force his way to success. That and a number of other factors, like how common the nature was among Starly, led Ash to conclude that his Starly had an adamant nature. To test this he fed the Starly some spicy poffins that he'd bought in Pewter City, and the bird's nearly comically happy reaction to the peppery taste proved it.

A few hours into the search Ash was digging in a crevice. He finally managed to lift up a lump of hardened dirt, which took much more energy than he had originally been willing to spend on the venture, and he looked under the clump to see if there was actually any point to the endeavor. Star pieces. _Star pieces!_ At least seven of them! Astonished, he scooped them out and showed them to his Pokemon—although they were once considered useless, Ash would be able to get a lot of money for them today because of their modern day use in poke-technology.

Amazed by his turn of luck Ash couldn't contain his excitement—he danced around maniacally and laughed in sheer joy over the turn his day had taken, and Tyche quickly began to dance with him as she was overtaken with his happiness. This was the best luck he'd had all day! Hell, this was the best luck he'd had since finding Bacchus! Still riding the high, Ash began to push his Pokemon to search for the fourth member of their team. Maybe they would luck out in the same way they had Shroomish. While he knew that he technically didn't need one—the second gym battle was always a doubles battle, and he could easily use Bacchus and Tyche—he still felt it would be a good idea to catch a fourth Pokemon. Variety was always useful when training to take on the Indigo Championships—even type specialists worked to cover their weaknesses with dual typed Pokemon.

Unfortunately, even after spending the rest of the afternoon searching, no Pokemon caught his eye. His team battled plenty of Pokemon: they battled Zubat, against whom Starly primarily competed against, determined to outdo them in every way, and the starling bird's indoor flying skills improved drastically within just a few hours. They also fought Geodude, against whom Tyche mastered Magic Leaf, and Sandshrew, who Ash considered as a possible fourth member to his team. Unfortunately he never came across a Sandshrew who he felt would be a good fit to the team. He knew that most other trainers didn't really look for that—the "partner" feeling being notoriously unreliable—but Ash couldn't help but try to listen to it.

By evening, Ash was back to the upset state he had been in that morning and had to return Tyche again. Finally, as he, Starly, and Bacchus were taking a break, he gritted his teeth and slammed his fist against the ground. His two Pokemon yelped and jumped back, surprised, and he glanced at them apologetically.

"Sorry guys, it's just—I've been so caught up in moping all day! I mean, I can't even let Tyche out it's so bad. And I'm not doing anything to stop it! I'm just moping and moping and moping—as if that ever improves anything! I'll do better, guys, I promise." With new determination, Ash stood. After a few minutes his team reached a wider area than they had been in previously and Ash let out Tyche. It hurt him to see the little Ralts tense for a moment in fear before relaxing, but it also made him feel even more sure. This newfound resolve was just what he needed to keep going.

After taking the time to explain to Tyche what was going on, Ash got started. First, he'd sat down with Starly and spent a couple of minutes coming up with a name now that the young Pokemon had a better grasp of human language. It took a while, but eventually the two settled on Boreas, an ancient name for the Pokemon now called Articuno. Then Ash sat the newly christened Boreas on learning Double Team. While the Pokemon had some good attacking moves, he had little in the way of defense, and Ash thought that the boosted dodging ability would have come in very helpful against the Meowth, especially if the young trainer got him trained up enough to use a move in concert with Double Team.

Ash then set his sights on his Shroomish. It was time the mushroom Pokemon learned to poison himself to make full use of his capabilities. After spending some time with the Pokedex watching other Pokemon preform poison powder—including one particularly feisty Breloom—Bacchus felt confident enough to begin trying to concentrate the poison energy necessary for the powder. Ash left him to it as he made his way to his third Pokemon.

While he'd already been working with Tyche on sensing nearby Pokemon, the larger issue was her difficulty keeping her concentration while also battling the emotional input of those around her, particularly if it was negative. To deal with this, and improve on her endurance, he'd set the Ralts to pumping out as many confusions as she could at the wall while he spent time talking with her about a wide range of things which caused an equally wide range of emotions to emanate from him.

First he touched on his absentee father: "Mom won't even talk about him, you know—not about who he was or what he did or why he's gone or anything. I know some of the neighbors know, I can see it in their faces, but they never say anything. Mom probably told them not to."

He then moved on to school: "You have to understand, Tyche, it wasn't until I was ten that I began trying hard in school. Before then I wasn't even coasting—I was floundering, and I refused to even consider that I had to put more effort in because I was so sure that my attitude was all I needed to be the best. But in the end, all that did was make me constantly ashamed that I was, over and over and over again, in the bottom of the class."

Then to why his sudden scholastic transformation had happened: "It was Gary. I mean, I don't like the guy, but I am really thankful to him for that. We were walking home from school one day and he just wouldn't stop telling me how I wouldn't amount to anything. We ended up having a full blown argument in the middle of Main Street and he finally yelled at me to prove him wrong, because I hadn't yet, and I just—I guess I decided that I would, and after that I kind of threw myself into everything I did."

It wasn't all negative, though. He also described his first memory: "It was Mimey and Mom. Mom was holding me, I think, and Mimey was looming over me, playing peek-a-boo, and I was laughing and laughing."

He also touched on more esoteric feelings: "I was six or seven, if I remember correctly. It was raining, and I hid inside this giant hole in a tree. As I was waiting for the rain to stop, Pokemon began to appear out of the fog. There was a Butterfree, an Oddish, a Weedle, a Caterpie—and they all came up and huddled next to me while we tried to wait for the rain to stop. When that happened, I felt, I don't know… resolute? Hopeful? I guess I felt like something was going to happen, not soon, but within my lifetime, and whatever it was I was going to be a part of it. It was a really odd sensation, but it was also really good."

By the time Ash felt they were done and began setting up camp to sleep all of his Pokemon had improved substantially and he no longer felt so dejected and gloomy. In fact, he whistled as he sat up the kitchenette and sleeping bag, and as he worked Tyche grabbed onto Bacchus and the two began to dance around the campsite, humming to themselves as they did. Above them Boreas flew, seemingly unwilling to participate, but Ash caught him bobbing in time with the music as he beat his wings. Ash couldn't help it and joined in the dance party with his partners, finally feeling as if everything was going right.


	7. Gym Number Two

By midmorning the next day Ash and his group had made their way to Cerulean City. As he entered the city limits Ash returned his Pokemon and began looking around. It was immediately obvious that this metropolitan area was nothing like either of the ones he'd visited before. Clear and airy, an inlet ran to the north of the metropolis. Trees were sprinkled all over the city, and almost every road had benches every few meters. The gym was the obvious center of the city—it was humongous and looked as if it was better positioned on a beach in Alola than in the more wintry Kanto. A giant Dewgong was positioned over the entrance to the gym, and the gym itself looked as if it was a pink and orange circus tent. It managed to completely ruin the beauty of the rest of the city.

Nonetheless, Ash couldn't spend all day gawking, so he strode forward, confident in taking on this gym just as well as he had Brock's.

As Ash made his way into the town, he saw a large crowd nearly blocking the road in the commercial district.

"What's going on?" He asked the first passerby he saw.

"Someone just broke into that shop—stole some very weird things. No point in sticking around though. This city's Officer Jenny is very suspicious and I'd rather not be interrogated." Saying that, the man quickly rushed off. Glancing at Officer Jenny, who seemed to be in the middle of interrogating a ten year old boy over whether he was the thief, Ash took it for the good advice it was and avoided the crowd and the shops, instead making his way straight to the Pokemon Center. After turning over his Pokemon for a checkup, Ash went directly to the gym.

Music could be heard through the gym's walls as he entered, and it only took him a couple of minutes to figure out why—the "Sensational Sisters", who had been the gym leaders prior to their little sister taking over, were performing. Ash stared at the women, who were doing acrobatic tricks he couldn't believe as they in turn dived into the water that made up the actual stage, and decided that signing up for a gym battle could wait.

Half an hour later the show came to a close. Ash stood and asked one of his seat neighbors where to sign up for a gym battle; he hadn't actually found that out before he'd been sidetracked. However, the man didn't know. Neither did the next one. Or the next one. Or the next one. Just as Ash was beginning to lose hope, he ran into the Sensational Sisters themselves. He had been wandering down a hallway in the aquarium part of the building when they appeared, and, knowing that they had to be aware of where the gym was, Ash seized his chance.

Running up to them, he asked "Hi! Big fan, by the way, but did you know how to sign up for a gym battle?"

"Oh, yeah." The one on the right said. She pointed to the stairs at her side. "You just, like, go up those steps and the sign up booth should, like, be right there! It's like, totally obvious and stuff. You, like, can't miss it!"

Ash quickly thanked her, making a mental note never to use the word 'like' again in his life, and jogged up the stairs. Sure enough, at the top of the steps stood a small booth. It was unmanned, but there was a small signup sheet in the center of the desk, so Ash counted it as a win. He quickly put himself down for the 10:00 slot the next day and tried to ignore the sinking feeling that no one would be there then either.

Just as he was about to leaving he heard a crashing sound and what sounded like cackling coming from inside the gym. He shook his head and kept walking—it wasn't his problem, let someone else deal with the issue this time.

Halfway to the Pokemon Center he was seriously questioning doing nothing, and by the time he arrived at the Center he determined that even though it wasn't his problem his conscience wouldn't let him sit idly by. Still, this time he could at least be smarter about it. After picking up his Pokemon, he made his way to the Cerulean police station, where he asked to talk to an officer about some suspicious activity.

Five minutes later found him shepherded into a small drab room. A mirror adorned one wall and a metal desk stood in the center of the room with two chairs on either side. Behind him the door shut and locked.

Ash quickly ran to the door and tried to open it. "Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" Having no success with the doorknob, Ash began to bang on the door. "You don't have any right to lock me up! I didn't do anything!" After a few minutes of futile attempts to get out of the room Ash finally gave up and sat in the seat furthest from the mirror. A couple minutes after that the doorknob finally turned and Ash jumped up and tried to run for it as an Officer Jenny went to walk in.

"Hold it right there mister!" The Officer Jenny shouted. Behind her a Growlithe began to snarl in warning. Ash sighed and made his way back to what could only be the interrogation chair.

"Now, let's get started." The officer sat in the chair opposite him before suddenly standing straight up and leaning over the table. "We've got you now dirt bag! You might as well admit to everything!"

"But I didn't do anything!" Ash shouted, trying not to fall back as he leaned away from her. He had a sinking feeling that there was no way this would turn out well.

"That's what they all say! But I know better!" Officer Jenny stood and crossed her arms. "You're a dirty rotten criminal and there's nothing you can do to convince me otherwise!"

"I'm not! You have to listen to me! I heard weird noises coming from inside the Cerulean Gym!" 

"Maybe you were the one making the weird noises! Did you ever think about that?!" Ash's sinking feeling sunk. It was obvious that the woman was insane.

"Look, I promise I wasn't the one making the noises. I'm not a criminal, or a dirt bag, or whatever else you think I am. Is there any way I can prove it to you?"

"Hmmm… well, what are you doing in this town anyway? It's obvious you're not a local. Which means you must be a criminal! Why else would you come here?" Ash stared. He glanced at the door, hoping another officer would come and take the crazy lady away, but no one did. Finally he looked back at the still leering Officer Jenny.

"I came here to participate in a gym battle. That was kind of why I was at the gym? Look, would it help if I showed you my ID?" While the Officer Jenny had initially looked even more distrustful as he spoke, the second he suggested an ID she perked up.

"Well, why didn't you just show it to me? Then this whole thing can be sorted and I'll send you on your way!" Ash quickly fished out his Pokedex and showed it to her.

"But I still need to report suspicious activity!" Ash added.

"Suspicious activity? Where?!" Officer Jenny was suddenly on alert again, glancing at the corners of the room as if a Banette was about to jump out and attack them.

"At the Cerulean Gym! Weren't you listening to a word I was saying?"

"Suspicious activity at the Cerulean Gym! I have to get there immediately!" With that, the officer sped out of the room, her trusty Growlithe racing behind her. Thankfully she left the door open, so Ash slipped out and snuck his way back to the Pokemon Center, resolving to never willingly go to a Police Station again.

After a rather late lunch Ash took the time to wander around the city. First he went to the Pokemon focused area of the commercial district to window-shop. There was a small natural medicine shop, which he had no interest in because he knew the medicines sold there, while cheap, were also not particularly well liked by any Pokemon. He also stopped by a bike shop and deliberated buying one, but he really liked the time he spent on the road with his Pokemon, so he decided against it.

From there he made his way to the residential district. He made a point of stopping in at any of the open door houses, where he met a number of the local residents, and he ended up commiserating with one man for an hour or so about the insanity of Officer Jenny. The man had a Jinx, and the officer had once spent five hours interrogating it over whether it had made a prank phone call to the bike shop.

Finally he made his way back to the Pokemon Center, where he called his mom and explained everything that had happened since the last time he called, which already seemed so long ago.

While she was understandably upset over what had happened in Mt. Moon, she was fuming over the Cerulean Police Department's treatment of "her baby boy!", to the point where he had to talk her out of marching up to the Officer Jenny herself and giving her a piece of her mind.

The call ended with his mom telling him to check the item box in the PC—she'd left a surprise in there, apparently.

Ash made his way over to the bulky machine and spent the next few minutes figuring out how to get to the item screen at all. While they had originally been extremely popular, ever since the ban on more than twelve Pokemon had been put in place the contraption hadn't gotten nearly as much use, particularly for beginning trainers, which meant that a great many of them were by Ash's standards ancient.

After finally managing to get to the right screen he saw an amazing sight—row after row of berries just waiting to be sent over to him. There was a letter attached to the first set—20 Oran berries—so Ash withdrew that one first.

 _Ashton—_

 _A couple weeks ago Professor Oak came to me and asked if I wanted to help him create a new type of fertilizer. Since then we've been working overtime to create soil that would both quickly ripen the fruit and make a lot of it, and I'm happy to say we succeeded! Thanks to this I've been able to get a much larger yield than normal, so I thought what would be better to do than to send you the excess? I made sure to send you all of your Pokemon's favorites, as well as Cheri and Chesto berries, among others. Use them wisely! And remember that they don't work nearly as well as store bought medicines—a Sitrus berry will never revive your Pokemon._

 _Love,_

 _Your mommy._

Ash grinned from ear to ear and began withdrawing the berries and putting them in his food/berry container. This would seriously reduce the amount he had to buy at the Pokemart, and the best part was that with the addition of this to his already collected star pieces he wouldn't have to worry about money at all! Well, that wasn't true—he would eventually run out. But at least now he had some wiggle room, particularly because prior to this windfall he'd been a bit tight—he hadn't been making a very good effort to fight every trainer he'd come across as most others did in an attempt to increase their income, so he had actually been a bit worried about how to afford all the medicines and potions he needed.

With that in mind Ash made his way back to the commercial district. There he bought a sufficient supply of food, as a few other necessities he was running out of. He stopped by the TM aisle, but the mart had a rather small selection and none of Ash's Pokemon currently needed a new move to work on—Ash had already given each of his Pokemon a new move to learn and perfect.

For Tyche he'd started her on learning Heal Pulse, which would be extremely helpful in further cutting his medicine costs as well as healing her teammates midbattle. He wanted the Ralts to know the move before evolving, and considering her growth in height and hair that occasion would be soon.

As for Bacchus, the Shroomish was still working on self-poisoning. While it was relatively easy for the mushroom to produce the Poison Powder and inflict in on others, he hadn't yet figured out how to selectively weaken his immune system to allow the poison in.

Finally, Ash had Boreas perfecting all his old moves and practicing Double Team. The young Pokemon was still having trouble with speed and accuracy, so that was where Ash focused his attention.

All of that plus the expense meant that buying a TM was out. Ash still didn't feel comfortable carrying around something worth as much as star pieces, though, so he did sell those and have the money put into the bank so that he could instead use his Pokedex, which acted as a sort of trainer's debit card.

Finished with that, the young teen went over to the inlet and spent the rest of the day working on his Pokemon's moves and fitness. During that time he also accepted three battles, two against trainers he didn't know and one against Stacey from Pallet. Her Igglybuff had evolved into a Jigglypuff by this point, and she also had a Butterfree and a Smeargle. While he'd managed to beat her, it was a very near thing, and Stacey warned Ash that she hadn't stood a chance against the Water type Pokemon gym leader, so Ash started to get worried.

After rechecking in his Pokemon at the Center, Ash made his way to his room and thought about his strategy for the next day. Stacey's comments had proved that the gym leader—Misty—did in fact exist, so he felt more confident about whether there would be a battle the next day, but Stacey's warning had also left him feeling less confident about the outcome.

His plan had previously been to rely heavily on type advantage—sending Bacchus and Tyche out to overpower the water Pokemon with their grass moves—but now he worried about whether that would be enough. After all, Brock had already warned him about Misty's cunning and Stacey had cautioned him too, saying that she had been destroyed by the gym leader's team. His sleep was awful that night as he constantly questioned whether he was ready for the battle tomorrow.

The next day found Ash standing right in front of the gym, half an hour early, looking decidedly less assured than he had been the previous day. He took a deep breath, and walked in. Five minutes later found him in front of the same booth as he was yesterday, but this time there was in fact someone behind it.

"Oh, hi! I'm Misty! You must be today's challenger! Ash, right? Sorry about not being here yesterday. I try to stay out of the gym when… I mean, my sister's performances are always a bit, um, noisy, so… anyway! We don't have any GAs here, by the way. There aren't enough challengers, I guess. Maybe I'll get them by the next Indigo League though—you'd be surprised about how many more trainers have been stopping by this year! Ready for the battle?" Misty grinned at him and fingered one of the pokeballs on her belt.

"Yep!" Ash said, and he managed to sound cheery despite his stomach clenching in fear. It was becoming increasingly clear why other trainers spent so long battling each other before challenging the gym leader. Confidence born from experience would have been a great help in entering the battle.

After positioning themselves on opposite sides of the water field, Misty and Ash prepared to face off.

"Staryu! Starmie! I choose you!" Misty shouted, releasing the two star shaped Pokemon straight into the water.

"Bacchus! Tyche! Come on out!" Ash shouted in turn, making sure to aim for the free floating platforms that dotted the pool.

"Rapid Spin on the Shroomish, Starmie, then Harden! Water Pulse the Tyche Staryu!" Misty shouted from across the field.

"Magical Leaf on the Staryu, Tyche, and Bacchus, use Stun Spore then Leech Seed on the Starmie." Ash said under his breath. "Be prepared to Teleport and dodge."

The Staryu and Ralts both shot off their moves, and neither missed. Starmie in turn spun towards the Shroomish, and while it was unable to dodge the stun spore it did narrowly miss the leech seeds and hit Bacchus before careening into the water. Still, Ash felt that it wasn't that bad of an effort—he'd hit the Starmie with a super effective move, and stunned the other. Still, judging by Misty's own grin, she was just as happy with the result as he was.

"Tyche, Magical Leaf again! Bacchus, try to Leech Seed one more time then use Mega Drain!" Ash couldn't help but raise his voice, but he made sure to keep it soft enough that Misty couldn't hear.

"Staryu! Water Pulse again! Starmie! Use Swift on Shroomish!"

Again, all the Pokemon attacked. Again, Tyche and Staryu matched attack for attack, and again, neither was able to dodge in time to miss the other's attack. Due to the wet surface of the platform, Tyche didn't even seem to be able to comfortably teleport. Worse, Starmie didn't look as if it was affected by the stun spore at all, and quickly shot off the unavoidable attack at Bacchus. The grass Pokemon himself was suffering from bad luck— unfortunately the leech seed didn't hit and the swift blocked him from being able to see enough to fire off a mega drain attack. Again, both sides fired off orders.

"Both of you! Use Recover!"

"Magical Leaf and Mega Drain!"

Both of Misty's Pokemon began to regain energy, diving under the water to keep from being hit. Unfortunately, that meant that while Tyche's move hit Bacchus's was unable to. Suddenly, without Misty saying anything, both star Pokemon shot forward, the Staryu slamming the Ralts with another Water Pulse. As for Starmie, the water/psychic Pokemon slammed into Bacchus with what seemed to be a mix of a Swift and Recover attack. Unfortunately, the hit was critical and Ash watched in despair as his Shroomish nearly fell into the water. As for Tyche, while she withstood the attack she did start looking around in what was obviously confusion afterwards. Ash winced—he'd forgotten about Water Pulse's ability to disorient its target.

"Magical Leaf and Mega Drain again!" Ash commanded.

"Both of you! Finish off the Shroomish!" Misty shouted, apparently determined to make the battle a two on one fight.

Unfortunately, it worked.

Ash quickly recalled Bacchus before the fainted Pokemon could drown, and watched in desperation as his other Pokemon hit herself into the same position. It was hopeless, and Ash quickly recalled Tyche before she too could faint.

"I yield!" Ash shouted. Misty smirked and recalled her own Pokemon, before walking around the edge of the pool towards her opponent.

"That was a good battle." Misty said as she held out her hand. Ash shook it, but his heart wasn't in it. He had been completely overpowered by the battle—just as everything was beginning to go right, everything went wrong. "Hey. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I guess. I just—this is my first loss, you know? And it wasn't even close. I guess I'm just wondering what I did wrong." Ash sighed as he remembered his Bacchus fainting from the dual attack.

"Hmm… Well, have you battled against many water Pokemon before?"

"Huh? Oh, no. I guess Staryu and Starmie would be my first."

"Well, there's your problem! You haven't had any experience fighting in the water! You should just go to the inlet and fight some wild Pokemon!" Misty beamed, apparently proud of her problem solving skills, but Ash just frowned. When Misty tilted her head in question, Ash explained,

"I don't have a fishing rod or anything, so I can't really battle any of the Pokemon in the water."

"Oh!" Misty nodded in recognition. "Well, you can have my old one. I just got a new one last week, so it is still in pretty good condition." Misty whistled, and a Seel popped in from the door. "Hey Seel! Can you go get my fishing rod from my room please?" The Seel replied agreeably and hobbled off.

"I mean, thank you so much, but why are you doing this for me?" Ash asked, stunned by the gym leader's generosity.

"It's not like I'm using the rod!" Misty laughed. "Anyway, I like your techniques, and I think if you work just a bit harder you'll go far. You just need to put your all into it, and why shouldn't I help you get there?"

Just then the Seel reentered the room with a rod held in his mouth. Well, tried to anyway—only one of the double doors were open and the horizontal rod was blocking the Seel from flopping into the room. The two trainers made their way to the Seel and Misty picked up the rod and handed it to Ash. "Come back soon, okay? I want to have another battle when you've got just a bit more training in you." Ash agreed, and made his way from the building, no longer feeling as devastated from his loss, but still determined to keep such a thing from happening again.


	8. Training, Teammates, and Triumphs

Ash spent the next two and a half days by the inlet, battling as many wild and trainer Pokemon as possible.

Boreas quickly became an expert in his old moves and towards the end of day two the little Pokemon got into an all-out battle against a particularly powerful Spearow, during which both Pokemon flew out of sight, forcing their trainers to run after the warring Pokemon. By the time the two boys found their Pokemon the Spearow was a Fearow and Boreas had evolved from a Starly to a Staravia, which was awesome, but Ash wished he had been there to actually see it. Initially Boreas had tried to challenge Ash, a common authority test for new evolutions, but one battle between him and Bacchus, which the newly evolved Pokemon lost, convinced the bird that Ash was a worthy trainer. Boreas also managed to perfect a new move, endeavor, in just one 24 hour period.

Boreas wasn't the only Pokemon to evolve—his other two did shortly after. In fact, it had been during the battle to reassert dominance that Ash's Bacchus suddenly evolved, immediately using an innate move 'Mach Punch' to win the battle. The Pokemon was now a grass/fighting type, and had finally grown arms, though they were still small and not particularly powerful compared to his legs. Bacchus had also managed to perfect another move, Counter, through a number of trainer battles.

Tyche had actually managed to evolve outside of battle: just as she was using heal pulse on her two teammates for the first time she began to glow, and within seconds Ash could proudly say he was the trainer of a Kirlia. She had spent the rest of the 48 hour training session perfecting a new move called Draining Kiss, because Ash wanted her to have a way to regain her own health in battle.

Finally feeling confident about his ability to beat Misty in a rematch, Ash gave his Pokemon the rest of the afternoon off. There was no way to understate how hard they'd worked—Ash still couldn't believe the progress they'd made—but his Pokemon now looked as if performing one more move would be impossible, never mind a battle.

Besides, it was a nice day—the sun was shining, the Butterfree were chirping—why shouldn't he and his Pokemon just relax and take it all in? Ash laid beside the river and turned on his radio, fiddling with the knob for a few seconds until he found a music channel. As Tyche and Bacchus danced together and Boreas performed some aerial acrobatics, taking the time to stretch his wings outside of training, Ash thought he heard a different noise—splashing, maybe? He idly turned his head towards the inlet, and then bolted upright. There, not 5 meters away from him, was a Horsea.

Carefully, Ash stood. He knew he couldn't rely on his team—they were too tired, and shouldn't be forced to work past their breaking point. Slowly the trainer reached into his backpack and pulled out his food/berry box. He quietly popped it open and pulled out some Wacan berries, which he knew were a favorite of water type Pokemon.

Ash slowly inched towards the edge of the water and held out a piece of a Wacan berry. The dancing Horsea cautiously watched him, before bobbing towards the teen and sucking the berry off of Ash's hand. Ash pulled off another chunk of Wacan berry and held it out again. After repeating the process several times, the little Horsea burped and settled, obviously completely sated. Ash slowly inched back to his backpack and pulled out a pokeball. He went back to the inlet and held out the pokeball. The little water Pokemon considered it for a moment, before pushing forward and pressing the button. Immediately the Horsea was sucked in.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Ash screamed, jumping up and down in sheer joy. His Pokemon, who had been watching the interaction with interest, joined him in his celebration.

Five minutes later found Ash with everything laid he needed laid out in front of him: a calmer mood, his Pokedex, his teammates, and a few more Wacan berries. He released Horsea, and waited while the little water type reoriented itself.

"Hey Horsea! I'm your trainer! Do you understand human speech?" The Horsea squealed in response. Ash wasn't sure how to interpret that, but went with taking it as an affirmative, because the little Horsea didn't look confused. "Great! Ok, so I'm just going to use my Pokedex to find out some more about you, okay?" After getting another squeal, Ash popped open the Pokedex and pressed observe.

"This Pokemon is a Horsea, or the dragon Pokemon. They have an omnivorous diet, feeding on bug types, berries, and moss. This Horsea is male, has the ability 'swift swim' as well as the hidden ability 'damp' and knows the moves Bubble Beam, Smokescreen, Leer, Water Gun, Twister, and the egg move Water Pulse." Ash squinted at the machine. While the Horsea was great, he was now the fourth Pokemon on the team with a hidden ability! Ash had no idea why all of his Pokemon were lucking out like that, and he half felt like the Pokedex was malfunctioning, but Bacchus had already shown that at least in his case the hidden ability actually existed, so Ash was unsure how this kept on happening. Shaking himself out of those thoughts, he turned to the Horsea.

"You look great, Horsea! I'll make sure to get you lots of moss and bug flavored poke-food, okay? And you've got a lot of moves too—that's great!" The little water Pokemon made a cooing sound and dipped his head. "Alright, now for a name. How about Neptune? No? Then maybe Triton? Yes?! Triton is a yes?! I've never figured it out that quickly before!" Ash grinned, proud of his minor victory, and the newly named Triton squealed in happiness, spurting water in the sky and creating a rainbow like effect over Ash and his other Pokemon. Who knew that the name of the mythological Seaking would be such a great fit?

The rest of the afternoon was spent working on improving the power, speed, and accuracy of each of Triton's moves, as well as having his other Pokemon study the water type's battle method, and Ash wrapped up the day by going to the store and buying a large bucket. While lugging around a bucket full of water and Horsea would be difficult, Ash didn't want his new Pokemon to be left out of anything, so it was a necessary sacrifice.

The next day found Ash again perusing the city to give his Pokemon a bit more of a rest as he practiced carrying Triton's bucket, without the Pokemon, of course—he didn't want to break the law, particularly in this city. As he wandered, he noticed something he hadn't paid much attention to before. On the golden bridge that allowed trainers to exit the town to the north was a sign. "Nugget Bridge—Do you have what it takes?". This, of course, peaked Ash's interest.

As he arrived at the bridge Ash saw a number of trainers standing on the bridge. The first one called out to him—

"People call this the Nugget Bridge! Beat all five of us and you get a fabulous prize! Do you have what it takes?"

Ash grinned. This would be fun, and the trainers looked quite young, so his Pokemon wouldn't be overly taxed either.

Given that the first trainer, Cale, was dressed as a bug catcher, Ash released Boreas. One Wing Attack after the other destroyed Caterpie, Weedle, Burmy, and Kakuna. Within minutes he'd moved on to the second trainer, a girl named Ali, and there he used Tyche and repeated his earlier act; it took only one move to destroy the each of the girl's three Pokemon. It took him no time at all to get through Timmy and Reli, and while it was a bit harder to get past Ethan, he managed that too.

By that point he'd managed to reach the end of the bridge where a man, ostensibly the challenge leader, stood.

"Congratulations!" The man said. "You beat the Nugget Bridge Challenge! Here's your prize." He handed Ash a nugget, and Ash grinned. If this kept up any money troubles would be ancient history. But before he could thank the man and get on his way—daylight was fleeting and his arms were aching, after all—the man grinned in a way that could only be described as frightening and asked, "You want to get more of those? I've got just the way! Join Team Rocket—I know we're seen as criminals, but we're not, really… We just know that there are only two groups in the world: those with power and those without." The man then paused and snickered, before pointing to Ash's hand, before gesturing to his own, where another five nuggets lay. "Or those with nuggets and those without. How about it, huh? Want to join the ones with power?"

Ash stared at the man, dumbfounded. Did he really think that speech would work? Of course he did, or else he wouldn't have said it. Well, Ash knew what to do with Team Rocket.

"Tyche! This guy's Rocket!" Ash shouted as he released the Kirlia. The Team Rocket member growled and jumped back, before releasing a Pokemon of his own, an Ekans, and ordering it to attack. Both Pokemon growled each other, before throwing themselves into attacking. While Tyche had the advantage the Ekans was obviously well trained and managed to dodge many of Tyche's Confusion attacks while managing to hit her despite the teleportation technique. However, in the end it wasn't enough and the grunt's Pokemon was quickly recalled as a Confusion attack knocked it out.

Not one to give up, the Team Rocket grunt sent out his next Pokemon, and Ash nearly couldn't believe his eyes. It was an (obviously untrained) Zubat. In the daytime. It took weeks, if not months, to acclimatize the Zubat to daylight, and generally by that point it was a Golbat. This Pokemon, on the other hand, was clearly a recent capture—or plunder—and was flying in every direction imaginable as it tried to get away from the burning sun. One Confusion and the Zubat had fainted. The Rocket grunt growled again, obviously pissed but with no way to redeem himself.

After one last last ditch grab to get the Nugget back, the grunt took off to Route 24. Ash on the other hand turned back to Cerulean to get to the Pokemon Center.

"Aren't you going to report him?" One of the Nugget Trainers, who had obviously been somewhat unaware of the true purpose of the challenge, asked.

"What, and get interrogated by Officer Jenny? You can." Ash grumbled. And the day had been going so well, too! But no, Team Rocket had to go ruin everything again. To be fair, this attempt was a great deal less harmful than the other two times he'd run into the organization, as well as the reported attempt they'd made at taking over Cerulean Gym—the place was covered with police and Growlithe now—but it still showed the loathsomeness of Team Rocket. They were literally being currently investigated in the City and they didn't feel at all worried about starting a new operation just a few steps north of it!

After checking his Pokemon into the Pokemon Center Ash decided to stake out the police station. Just because he wanted to avoid a certain officer didn't mean that he wanted the crime to go unreported, so he decided to wait for ten minutes and if no one else had come forward by then he would man up and do it.

Thankfully, just five minutes after he'd arrived the Nugget trainer Ethan went in, so Ash didn't have to stick out his neck again. After selling the Nugget Ash decided to write off the rest of the day as a waste and go back to bed. It was actually a bit nice to have a bit of a rest after all the training and battles and he and his Pokemon had a great time listening to the story of Ho-Oh and the Legendary Birds on the radio.

The next morning Ash got up early and spent a few hours preparing his Pokemon for their upcoming battle. He had psyched himself up so much that by the time the battle was over he was truly disappointed that it was so one sided—even if it was in his favor. But in the end his Pokemon's improved grass type moves and healing abilities, as well as their recently developed understanding of a swimming Pokemon's fighting style, meant that Misty's Pokemon didn't have a chance. Really, it was horribly anti-climactic. Ash left on a good note, though, promising to meet up with her during the Indigo Conference to battle her real team, assuming he made it.

Ash pondered the difference between the first and second battles as he made his way back to the Pokemon Center. While Ash had definitely been expecting an easier battle the second time around, his complete destruction of her gym 2 team left him wondering just how his Pokemon had managed to improve so fast. However, as he entered the waiting room of the Center, Ash quickly refocused on what was important: he was getting his third selection Pokemon today, and after he beat his next gym he would be free from many of the new trainer restrictions.

"Oh, hello Mr. Ketchum! I was wondering when you would call—six of your classmates have already gotten their third Pokemon!" Ash sat back, stunned. While he knew he'd fallen a bit behind, he hadn't expected it to be by that much. Regardless, he could focus on speeding up later. For now he needed to get his next Pokemon.

"Well, I'm here now professor! Tell me what choices I've got!"

"Let's see… well, there's a Pidgey, a Rattata, a Hoothoot, a Shinx, a Ledyba, and a Taillow left. Before you ask, your fellow trainers chose a Venipede, a Spearow, a Pidove, a Nincada, a Diglett and a Surskit."

"Thanks Professor." Ash grinned. It was nice of the man to satisfy his curiosities. Ash then focused on the selection he had left. Pidgey and Rattata were out—if he wanted one of those, he would have caught it in the wild. Hoothoot, Ledyba, and Taillow were also nos. He already had his flying Pokemon. This left his choice obvious, and thankfully it was a good one. "I'll take a Shinx professor."

"You've got it!" Professor Oak said, before grabbing the pokeball in putting it in the slot of what must have been his side of the PC. However, the machine didn't take it. The Professor made a confused noise and tried to put it in again. Again, the machine whirred and came to a stop. "I'm sorry Ash. The machine seems to be malfunctioning. Call back in an hour, but if I don't have it working by then, then it'll probably be a multi-day fix."

Ash sighed, but agreed and left for dinner. Exactly an hour later found him in the same spot with the Professor making his apologies. Apparently the machine had been zapped by a rogue Pikachu and it would take Oak a while to get it back into functional condition. He did, however, assure Ash that by his next gym he would have his Pokemon.

Ash tried not to think about how little that mattered if there was no time to train it—hell, he didn't even know its gender yet, never mind its mood and personality!

Still, Ash did have another new Pokemon, and he'd only just recently managed to figure out that Triton had a modest nature, so Ash decided to focus on using the Pokemon he did have to beat the next gym.

The next day Ash was on the road again, but this time he journeyed holding a bucket of Triton-filled water in his arms. He'd chosen to go down Route 5 next, because he'd learned that the gym leader in Vermilion City, just past Saffron City, was offering a special prize to anyone who could beat him. That Lt. Surge was considered one of the harder gym leaders and this would be Ash's last challenge with an 'under 3' team may have also made an impact in his decision.

Not even three hours later Ash had to stop. He'd held out much further than he thought he would, with frequent breaks, but in the end the exhaustion of holding Triton's container was too great. Choosing a meadow to rest in, he sent his Pokemon off to practice their moves. Just as Boreas was smashing into a stone with steel wing a boy stumbled into the clearing.

"Wow! Your Pokemon are really powerful!" He said admiringly. He also obviously recognized Ash. Ash blinked twice and then finally recognized him in return: it was Anthony, from his home town.

"Hey Anthony! Want to have a Pokemon battle?" Ash had decided to stay good to his word and accept as many battles as possible.

"Sure! I mean, your Pokemon are tough but I've trained mine up pretty well too! I've only lost one match on this route so far! How about one on one? I've got five Pokemon, but most of them are pretty worn out from battling already." Ash agreed, and they took their places.

Both decided to release their first Pokemon at the same time. Ash sent out the Staravia Anthony had been admiring earlier, and Anthony sent out a Pikachu. If Ash remembered correctly Anthony had chosen the Wooper the first day, not the Pichu, so this one must have been wild-caught. That fact didn't make it any less dangerous, however. Boreas didn't actually have any moves that were super effective against the little mouse Pokemon.

"Try a wing attack Boreas." Ash ordered.

"Spam thunderbolt Pikachu!" Anthony cried.

Both Pokemon heeded their trainers commands and lightning crackled as Boreas was thrown down from the first thunderbolt. As the electric Pokemon prepared to strike again, Ash knew he had to do something.

"Endeavor, then quick attack!" Ash shouted, no longer worried about his opponent hearing his moves, just about keeping Boreas conscious. It was always amazing to him how quickly the thrill of battle took over and made everything become more urgent.

Immediately after the second thunderbolt hit Boreas sent a surge of energy straight at the Pikachu. The electric mouse Pokemon didn't bother to dodge, likely believing that there wasn't a move Staravia could do that would hurt it, so the attack hit straight on and the effect was immediate, with the Pikachu stumbling in shock and his next thunderbolt dissipating. As the Pikachu tried to recover from the sudden change in health, Boreas swooped in and hit him once. Immediately his target fainted. Anthony recalled Pikachu and the two trainers met in the middle of the field.

"That was a good battle Ash." Anthony said. He didn't look completely happy—who would be after losing?—but he didn't look too upset either.

"It was really just luck." Ash said in return, glancing at the Staravia who was trying to regain some of his energy by snacking on a few Oran berries Ash had left out.

"Sure, but I got lucky too—If you had sent out your Breloom or Kirlia, the battle would probably have been much easier for you. You're a good trainer Ash. You always were, even before you got Pokemon." Anthony grinned, before a thought seemed to suddenly pop into his mind. "Hey! You could take on AJ! He's the other trainer I've lost to, by the way—he's got a super powerful Sandshrew—but I think you could take him down. What do you say?" Ash shrugged and nodded. His arms had regained some of their strength, so it wasn't like he needed to wait here anymore.

Ten minutes later found them standing in front of a large outpost. A giant sign over the entrance declared in large letters "AJ's Gym. Wins: 99, Losses: 0. (Not officially sanctioned by the Pokemon league)."


	9. AJ's Gym

AJ was at least a head taller than Ash and built like a Machoke. His Sandshrew was also abnormally large and had the beginnings of spikes riddling its back, signaling the Pokemon's pending transition into a Sandslash. His non-official gym was correspondingly large: there was an entire battlefield molded out of sand just outside of a large circus tent (maybe that was a trend in the area?). What Ash found most interesting was that the other trainer had not yet challenged a single gym.

League rules stated that you could not openly challenge someone who had two or more badges fewer than you, however you could challenge anyone above you or less than two badges below you. This was to avoid multigym trainers from absolutely decimating their novice counterparts, and it was a rule that Ash personally agreed with. While most of the trainers he'd met so far were around his level, Ash knew that as time wore on he'd run into more and more experienced trainers who'd already done the Indigo League Gym Circuit and were going through it again to compete in the conference. Still, it did mean that challenging AJ was a bit inconvenient.

First both AJ and Ash opened their Pokedexes and turned on the video feature, before pointing their cameras so that they were both clearly visible. Then AJ formerly challenged Ash to a battle, making sure to acknowledge that he knew Ash had two more badges than him. Then Ash formerly accepted the challenge, reiterating that he was not the one who had proffered it. Finally both boys positioned their respective cameras so that the sand arena was clearly visible.

AJ performed the entire process with such an air of precision and efficiency that it was obvious that the entire process had become muscle memory, but Ash couldn't imagine going through the whole procedure before every battle. It was so mind numbing and stiff! Ash couldn't understand how AJ put up with it when he was obviously more than capable of obtaining at least one or two badges without a sweat.

Preparations complete, the two boys stood on opposite sides of the field and took battle stances.

"How long have you been training anyway?" Ash called across the arena.

"'Bout two years now, give or take. But I'm not even trying for the Indigo Conference until I beat a hundred newbie trainers. You're lucky—you'll be my last one!" AJ laughed, but Ash didn't.

"We'll see about that." Ash muttered. As one, both teens sent forth their Pokemon—AJ's monstrous Sandshrew against Ash's recently evolved Breloom.

"Stun spore, leech seed, mega drain." Ash murmured in rapid succession. Across the field AJ pulled out a whip and had it crack near his own Pokemon, who promptly burst into action, curling into a ball and beginning to whirl around at a fantastic pace before beginning to shoot out star-like projections of energy—a combined rapid spin and swift attack. The astral energies shot straight at Bacchus, but even as they did the Breloom shot yellow spores and small seeds out to cover the field before trying and failing to drain energy off of the Sandshrew. AJ cracked his whip again and the Sandshrew tried to avoid the spores and seeds by diving into the sand, but it was too late and the Pokemon was soon covered in growths and powder. AJ gritted his teeth but cracked the whip again as Ash shot out his own orders.

"We've got him now, Bacchus. Mega drain until he's fainted."

Despite what Ash thought, it was not going to be as easy a victory as it first appeared. The Sandshrew struggled past its paralysis in time to miss another of Bacchus's mega drains and began to slash in a way reminiscent of only one move—fury swipes. Bacchus tried to dodge, but even with the paralysis the Sandshrew was just too quick and the mouse Pokemon was suddenly upon Breloom, ripping the poor Grass-Fighting type apart. Thankfully not all was lost. The closer distance also meant that the Sandshrew was much easier to aim at, so Bacchus was able to hit the Pokemon with one draining attack after the other. As the two battled it out in a close combat fight, both trainers egged on their respective partners with support and advice. For one minute, and then two, the two continued to barrage each other with super effective moves, but the recovery capability of mega drain finally won out and the Sandshrew fainted.

"No!" AJ shouted, and ran into the field, tenderly picking up the fainted Sandshrew. Ash ran to his Pokemon too, and both trainers sat side by side as they worked to heal the damage their Pokemon had taken. Ash even let AJ borrow a Cheri berry so that he wouldn't have to go inside and get one. As they waited for their Pokemon to recover, Ash congratulated AJ.

"Your Pokemon's trained up great, AJ. My team and I fought a ton of Sandshrew in Mt. Moon and none of them were anywhere near as powerful as yours."

"Thanks." AJ replied. "You know, Sandshrew's the first Pokemon I ever caught. I mean, I got a Weedle from the Sensational Sisters two years ago—he's a Beedrill now, and a darn good one—but I spent the next month looking for a Pokemon on my level. I mean, I like Beedrill and all, but he don't got nearly my drive to succeed, and I wanted a real partner to share all my experiences with. And then one day there he was—sitting on a rock just outside of Mt. Moon and staring straight at me as if he knew exactly why I was there. Maybe he did, I don't know. But I do know that that was the moment when I knew that we'd be able to take on the world together." AJ grinned at the Pokemon in his lap and scratched between the Sandshrew's ears as he reminisced.

"Wow. I mean, I pretty much lucked out with my Pokemon so far. Each and every one of them shares my ambition—I want to be the greatest trainer of all time, to become the youngest Champion ever—and I guess it's kind of amazing that I lucked out like that. I can't imagine having to look that long to find your partner. But why haven't you challenged your first gym yet? I mean, you've got both Pokemon and you're obviously strong enough."

AJ sat back to think. "Well, I'm not going to lie, I've thought about it a couple times. But, I mean, most people end up going through the Indigo Circuit five or six times before they even reach the top 16, so I figure if I give my Pokemon two years of training right out of the gate—without worrying about getting more powerful, just about getting stronger—then I've already got an advantage right out of the gate and I'm still a complete unknown to most of my competitors."

"How do you do that? Work on getting stronger, I mean. I've been working on improving moves and speed and such with my Pokemon, but what you're doing is above and beyond."

"C'mon, I'll show you!" AJ gestured towards the tent and then picked up Sandshrew and led the way while Ash followed with Triton and his tank in hand while Bacchus, now nearly fully recovered, hopped behind.

Inside the tent was a veritable work out center. There was a hoop with fire and a deep swimming pool and weights littered all over the place and a trampoline and two treadmills side by side and a fully functional kitchen and Arceus knows what else all scattered throughout the marquee. Ash couldn't help but gape. He couldn't afford 90% of what was in the room, and that almost terrified him. That a teen only two years older than him—only 17—could afford all of this was stunning. It was true that generally those who lived in Cerulean City were the richer residents of Kanto, so the trainers starting out there were more likely to be given benefits others might not from their families, but this was just unbelievable. Ash stared at all of the equipment and tried desperately to keep his brain working. But even as he did, he began to be disheartened.

When he and AJ had started talking, Ash had felt that maybe he could get his Pokemon to the level of AJ's Sandshrew, but now he felt as if he would be lucky to come close. There was no way he could afford the gear AJ was using. He had been lucky enough that his mother was able to give him as many berries as she could—just one set of all-Pokemon weights could set him back about as much as the TM case had.

A few steps ahead of Ash AJ noticed that he'd stopped walking and turned to look at him. "Hey now—don't be discouraged. I know it looks like a lot, but most of this stuff you can find substitutes for." AJ grinned and sat down Sandshrew before tugging Ash further into the tent.

For the next half hour he led the younger teen around the room pointing out various equipment and suggesting various substitutes that Ash could use on-road. "Now, the treadmill's nice and easy: you can just run for that, and for weights I guess I'd suggest using some rocks and rope. Just make sure to be careful of your Pokemon's skin—rope ain't exactly been treated for comfort like my weights have. For the pool just have you and your Pokemon swim whenever possible for as long as possible—even if they, or you, don't like the water." That was one thing that AJ emphasized. It was not just the Pokemon in training—it was the trainers too. "See, how could you ever ask your Pokemon to do something you won't do yourself? I'm always right there beside my Sandshrew and Beedrill, working just as hard as they are."

By the end of the tour Ash felt much better about his ability to recreate most of the equipment he saw in the room. While some items like the macho brace weren't exactly possible to mimic, Ash wasn't entirely sure he wanted to be that intensive. While additional strength rather than power training did seem like a good idea, and it had certainly worked well for AJ, Ash felt that the most useful training tool would simply be challenging other powerful trainers. This went directly against AJ's policy of 'grinding', but Ash still felt like it was the better method.

AJ had also given Ash a TM that he had two copies of—Focus Punch. Ash couldn't wait to test it out with Bacchus.

"So I guess you're staying here, huh?" Ash asked as AJ walked him and his Pokemon out.

"You bet! I've gotta beat 100 newbies in a row before I'll move on, and you've just set me back to zero! Be sure to send anyone you see my way, though! You owe me!"

Back on the road again, Ash felt that it would be better to implement the new training techniques he'd learned about immediately, so he went straight to the river he'd been meandering towards since leaving Celadon City and released his Pokemon, tying rocks to each of their limbs as well as his own. For the rest of the day he and his Pokemon worked through many of the exercises the Sandshrew's owner had told him about, running, jumping, and leaping around as they worked to improve their strength. He also had Triton hop out of the water as long as possible, before jumping into the water with Tyche, Bacchus, and Boreas and practicing diving as much as possible.

By the time the sun began to set all of the Pokemon were exhausted and Ash set to putting each to rights. Triton got a couple of Oran berries and his tail was massaged to help ease the ache of hopping on it on the ground. For Tyche the largest issue was the weights—the dancing Pokemon was unused to the resistance training, and was quite content to be put back in her pokeball for the night—after a few berries, of course. Bacchus took it by far the best out of the group, and in fact seemed to enjoy showing of his strength in and out of the water. He'd also taken to antagonizing the little Horsea, which was a new behavior from the Breloom and one that Ash hoped would stop soon. If Bacchus took it the best then Boreas took it the worst. Despite how his species was well known for fishing for much of their food, Boreas seemed to be particularly against the water and spent a good amount of time after the exercises were complete shaking his wings free of water and glaring spitefully at Ash. Nonetheless, once the teen got a fire set up and a little nest for the bird at the very edge of it the Staravia calmed down and settled in for the night.

Ash himself was a different matter. His body was not used to being pushed in such a manner. While it was true that he had walked alongside his Pokemon, and had even trained some prior to beginning his journey, he had not spent the time practicing one attack after another like his team had. By the end of the day he felt as if he was about to die. Still, he carefully went about making all of his Pokemon comfortable and only after all of their pains were eased did he slowly lower himself to the ground and pull out his first aid pack. He fished through the bag until he found the anti-inflammatory pills and took two. Then he began the slow, careful process of massaging all of his aching muscles in his arms and legs. He was suddenly much more happy about the mandatory human health class at school. While he'd understood the need for the Pokemon health class, the human version fell, to him, in the same category as the compulsory advanced math and science classes—technically helpful, but not as much as the Pokemon centered courses.

Now though, the course seemed much more useful—he couldn't imagine how he'd feel the next morning if he didn't know pain relief techniques. Returning to the first aid kit, he found the snap-packs—wonderful inventions which you simply 'snapped' in order to get a burst of heat or cold. While he was tempted to use one of the former, he knew it was the latter which would be more useful in the long run, so a quick flexing of the pack later and a wonderful chill began to spread from the pack to his right leg. He pulled out three more—one for each limb, and positioned them correspondingly, before finally allowing himself to fall into a fitful sleep.

The next day he woke up feeling as if he'd been slammed into by a Donphan, but at least it didn't feel like he'd been sat on by a Snorlax. He spent the next thirty minutes stretching every muscle in his body, before he finally felt like he could stand.

The entire time his team stood to the side laughing at him. It was, Ash reluctantly thought, a rather good bonding experience for the rest of the team. Bacchus and Triton, at least, seemed to be hitting it off over a shared love for seeing Ash hobble around like an old Crustle.


	10. How to Improve

It took Ash a week beside the river before he felt like he could continue on his journey while training. Before that the exertion it took to do the exercises left him too exhausted to walk, much less carry Triton and his bucket while doing so. However, by the end of the week he felt he'd improved enough that continuing on was no longer an impossible feet. Part of the reason he felt that way was because he'd figured out how to share the burden.

For the first quarter of the day it would be Boreas who carried Triton. This was done by rigging up some ropes to allow the Staravia to carry the Horsea underneath him as he flew. Ash also felt this was good prep for learning the move Fly. It was one of the most popular moves in Kanto due to its ability it to transport a Pokemon and their trainer over distances more quickly than walking and over a longer area than teleporting.

That said, Boreas did not know the move yet and carrying a tank of water and Pokemon was arduous work to do without natural energy helping, so when Boreas began to tire Triton would be switched off to Ash and Tyche. Working in concert, the two would carry the tank until lunch, where all the Pokemon and their trainer would rest and recoup from the training and battles of the morning.

After lunch Triton would again be passed off, this time to Bacchus. The bucket had handles on either side and Ash had Bacchus hold them in his pincer-like hands in order to build up muscle.

When Bacchus began to tire the water-type dragon Pokemon would be switched off one more time, this time to Ash alone, as they stumbled a few more miles before picking a place to stay for the night.

Besides carrying Triton, their training continued in other aspects. Whenever the group encountered a river or stream they'd stop for diving exercises and they regularly paused in their march for sprints and other physical activities. Ash also made sure to have as many battles as possible.

During this time Tyche managed to perfect a new mental technique, Calm Mind, which helped her make the most out of each attack. She loved using it on opponents who saw her as weak, and would perform the move whenever there was a pause in a battle. The increased battling and fitness training also saw her ability to use her other moves to the greatest effect shoot up.

At the same time, Bacchus had nearly mastered a new fighting type move, Focus Punch, an incredibly powerful move which unfortunately also needed an intense amount of focus and therefore no distractions to truly preform. While the use of the TM kit was flawless, Bacchus had yet to fully perfect the move. Ash had some ideas to help improve it once the Breloom had gotten in to that point, but first he had to master it as it was meant to be preformed.

Boreas had actually improved by far the most of the group, not only learning Whirlwind, which admittedly Ash did not spend much time on, but also Aerial Ace, a flying type move which appealed to the bird due to its power. Boreas had, in fact, loved the move so much that he would regularly perform it on innocent foliage as they continued to travel, gradually increasing the speed and power of the attack.

Triton had also been practicing, and had in fact begun to mimic the mental effort of focus punch, quickly learning focus energy, which helped his next attack in the middle of a trainer battle hit extremely hard. After seeing that, Ash had spent a bit of time teaching the technique to his other Pokemon. This actually worked very well, despite the Pokedex saying that none of his other three Pokemon could learn the mental exercise, so as they continued to walk Ash began to ponder what other unlisted moves he might be able to teach his Pokemon.

Around two days into the new itinerary a deep fog settled over the route, and about an hour later Ash had to admit he was lost. He returned all of his Pokemon but Tyche and had her use her sensory abilities to try to find another person.

After another twenty minutes or so of stumbling around the fog seemed to clear a bit; enough, at least, that the distinct shapes of people were visible ahead. As Ash moved towards them, some of what they were saying also began to filter through the fog.

"Name of the evolution of Wimpod! Go!"

"Um… Uh… Wimpout?"

"No! That's the name of its ability! If you don't start thinking better, you are never going to graduate!" 

By now Ash was only a few meters away from the group. They were all boys, and they were wearing some sort of uniform. Ash vaguely remembered a Pokemon academy—an alternative to gym battling—in the area, so he assumed he had stumbled upon their campus. Ash was half tempted to turn around—he'd always found the academy kids who'd made their way to Pallet, usually in search of Professor Oak, to be overly smug and have a dreadful case of 'swelled ego' which they refused to get checked. What made him stay, though, was that the boy that was being interrogated was obviously not happy, and was being forced to sprint on a treadmill while answering despite his obvious exhaustion.

"Hey! Stop that!" Ash shouted, before immediately wincing—it wasn't exactly his best line.

One of the boys, who looked to be the oldest, sighed and turned to Ash.

"Look, at this school we have standards. Anyone who can't name Wimpod's evolution obviously doesn't belong. We're just helping him shape up before he's shipped out." The teen spoke as if he was talking to a child—and a particularly feeble minded one at that—and Ash felt his hackles rise even more.

"You're not helping him! You're bullying! I don't care what the standards at your school are, acting like that has no excuse."

The teen scoffed and behind him the tormented boy shook his head wildly at Ash, begging him to stop.

The other boys all smirked at Ash, not bothering to answer, before turning around and heading towards the large building looming in the distance.

"We'll see you back at the tech, Joe." The oldest teen called over his shoulder. Behind him Joe agreed, but did not attempt to walk after them.

"Is this Pokemon Tech, then?" Ash asked.

"Oh, yes. My parents thought I wouldn't be able to manage a journey but I really wanted to be a Pokemon trainer so they sent me here. It costs a lot of money though, and I don't think I'm making the most of it like I should."

Ash hesitated. It was true that the boy did not seem to know as much as Ash himself did, and Ash had spent no time in any sort of advanced school. "I mean, I guess Wimpod is a hard Pokemon to learn about. They are not native to this region, after all."

"Oh, no." Joe replied. "I know all about it. Wimpod is the 'turn tail' Pokemon. Its ability is wimp out, and it is a bug-water Pokemon. It evolves into Golisopod at level 30, where it changes its ability to 'emergency exit' and immediately learns the innate move First Impression."

"Then why didn't you tell those bullies what you know?" Ash asked, astonished.

"Oh, if I show that I know something they just make the questions harder. It's not worth it."

Ash grimaced. Just then the bell rang.

"I should probably head inside." Joe said, and started walking towards the looming building.

"Wait up!" Ash hurried after him. "Why did they think you were so bad anyway?"

"That's because I'm still in the beginner's course—I only have the equivalent of two gym badges right now. I mean, they were really easy to get on the simulator, but the next one I don't think I'll earn for at least a month, and they get harder after that."

"Easy? Do you know how hard I had to train to beat Misty at the Cerulean Gym?" Ash questioned.

"Maybe you just don't have the right type advantage," Joe said blithely. "It was really easy for me with my Weepinbell."

"Yeah, right! Look, let's have a battle right now. I think it'll take me a month or so of training to be fully prepared for Surge's gym, which will be my third gym badge, so according to you we should be about evenly matched."

Joe readily agreed, assured that he would at least win against someone who had trouble with their _second_ gym badge, and the two made their way inside to one of the classrooms. There was a large battle floor in the middle of the classroom, and on either side rows upon rows of simulator machines were lined up, ostensibly for the students to practice beating gyms with.

The two went to the center of the room, and while Joe sent out his Weepinbell Ash, in a fit of whimsy, set down Triton onto the field. This would be the Horsea's first official battle, but Ash felt sure that the little dragon Pokemon would do fine. It was well trained and had gone up against Bacchus in faux-battles dozens of times.

Joe grinned and spat out his orders. "Vine Whip then Acid, Weepinbell!" 

Ash only had one word for his teammate. "Attack."

As the Weepinbell lashed out with a vine his opponent began to move through a carefully choreographed moveset. First Triton attacked with a Twister, knocking the vine off course and briefly disorienting the grass-poison type. Before it could recover, the water Pokemon shot out a Smokescreen, obscuring the vision of the field, before using Focus Energy and then Water Pulse.

Immediately after finishing the Water Pulse Triton made to repeat the steps again, but before he could his opponent fainted. Apparently not only had Triton's two moves hit, but the latter had also made the poor Weepinbell confused and it had taken itself out in its confusion.

"Weepinbell!" Joe cried. He ran into the arena, coddling the poor fainted Pokemon. "You had a type advantage! How could you lose?!" Before Ash could say anything, a girl which had come up behind Joe when they had been fighting spoke.

"Obviously the Horsea had more experience and was better trained than your Weepinbell. You should have known you would lose—you are an embarrassment to the whole school."

"Giselle." Joe gulped, looking embarrassed but also slightly giddy—a crush, Ash surmised. Taking a good look at the girl himself, he could see why. She had the kind of natural beauty that was so popular in the Pokestar Studios movies, and she moved with a kind of grace that made you sit up and pay attention. The effect was ruined for Ash, however, because the girl carried an air about her that was remarkably similar to Gary's. Ash had no doubt that this Giselle was very used to being praised, and didn't have a humble bone in her body. But just in case he had any skepticism, her next words made sure that he was certain of her personality.

"I," She introduced, "am the top student in the beginning class in the most exclusive prep school in the world: Pokemon Tech! It's said that others aren't blessed with my beauty, my talent, my humble attitude… People call me a star, but I'm just Giselle!"

Yes, Ash thought, she and Gary would get along perfectly.

"Well then, how about a battle?" He asked.

"What?" Giselle snapped.

"You said that his loss should have been obvious. Let's see if yours will be just as clear."

She smirked and pulled out a pokeball. "Against that tiny thing? I'll take it out in seconds. Graveler, go!" She shouted.

"You are aware that Graveler are weak to Horsea, right?" Ash smirked back.

"My Pokemon is at such an advanced level it can beat water Pokemon." She smiled again, and then ordered her Pokemon to attack as Ash did the same.

Triton repeated his moves from earlier, while the Graveler seemed to be using brute force, though it was thankfully being kept away from hitting Triton's bucket due to the Horsea's own moves. Both trainers stood on either side, absolutely assured in their own victory. For one minute, then two, the Pokemon dueled it out under the cover of the Smokescreen. Then the smoke began to clear. Both Pokemon were still standing, but it was obvious both were quite worn out. Both trainers decided to switch to spoken commands simultaneously.

"Magnitude, Graveler!"

"Jump, then one last Water Pulse." Ash whispered.

On the field, the Graveler began to force the ground to vibrate harshly. But before the vibrations could do anything to Triton the water type jumped up, using the muscles it had spent the last few days practicing so much, and while in the air shot a spurt of water out at Giselle's Pokemon.

Before its attack even finished the Graveler was on the ground, fainted from the impact.

"No! Graveler! Your Pokemon shouldn't have been able to do that! It should have been forced to stay in its tank!"

Ash smirked. "Shows what you know. Look, Professor Oak used to visit my school and the one thing he would always emphasize was that there was so much potential in Pokemon that he had yet to discover. You can't just rely on the knowledge of others; you have to figure things out for yourself." Ash smiled again and gestured at his squealing Pokemon. "That's why actually going on the journey was so important for me. Yeah, it's hard, and yeah, I made mistakes, but I learned from them and in doing so improved in ways I wouldn't have otherwise, and as I continue to challenge more gyms—real gyms—I'll keep on getting better."

Giselle stared at him for a few seconds, before returning her attention to her Graveler. She grit her teeth, then sighed.

"I guess you're right. I got so caught up in knowing everything that it never occurred to me that there was only so much textbooks could teach. I'll just…" She grit her teeth again—it was very obvious that admitting she was wrong was extremely difficult for the girl. "…I'll just be going to class now. It was nice meeting you." It was then that her eyes flashed, and a new but remarkably less irritating look settled on her face: determination. "But rest assured, the next time we meet my Pokemon won't go down nearly as easily."

Ash grinned back. "Looking forward to it." He watched as the crowd of students who had made their way in during the battles began to disperse, talking in low murmurs about what had just occurred. In just a few seconds only he and Joe were left.

"You beat Giselle!" Joe shouted in a whisper, as if he could not believe his eyes.

"Yup. And you can too, you know. The problem, I think, is that everyone at this school is too busy memorizing data rather than actual practicing in the real world—for instance, you said Wimpod evolves to Golisopod at level 30. Well, do you know how to measure when that is?" Joe winced. "While knowing generally when Pokemon evolve is great, unless you know the real world signs, there really isn't any use memorizing it in the first place. For instance…" Ash gestured to Tyche. "Kirlia are also known to evolve at level 30 and I can tell that mine is pretty close because her 'skirt' is lengthening while her 'hair' is shortening. See?" The two boys spent a few moments looking over Tyche.

"The academy didn't really teach that Pokemon started looking different prior to evolution." Joe admitted. "But how do I learn if the school isn't going to teach me?"

"Experience! What do you think I've been talking about this entire time?" Ash asked. Joe had the decency to look slightly ashamed, before he too firmed up as Giselle had.

"Well, then I'll battle everyone in this building. And I'll make sure to take lots of notes about everything that the teachers and books don't mention, and then maybe one day _I_ can open up a school, one that prepares its students for all aspects of a trainer's life!"

"Sounds like a plan." Ash grinned, and the two finally parted ways—Joe to begin pursuing his new life goal, and Ash to keep marching towards his. Ash also felt decidedly more assured about his personal philosophies after they came out superior in a battle between the practice of focusing primarily on experience against the practice of focusing primarily on knowledge.


	11. Career Questions

About a week of training and slow progress through Route 5 later Ash was finally near a village. While the Hidden Village was in no way a large community, Ash's mother had urged him to stop by so that was where the trainer lead his Pokemon. It was apparently quite beautiful, and he could 'learn a lot'.

As he crossed the bridge that led to the village Ash nearly fell off—Triton's tank combined with the high winds and currents meant that ending up in the river was a real danger. Thankfully, Boreas had gained a lot of wing strength over the last couple of weeks of training and was able to pump air in the opposite direction of the wind. That didn't help improve the comfort of the journey, though, so by the time Ash was on the other side of the river he was having trouble believing that any unmapped village could be worth it. Even Pallet Town was mapped!

Finally on the other side of the bridge Ash passed Triton back to Bacchus—he'd only been holding the tank to get across the bridge—and the troop continued down river, towards the village. Only a minute or two after heading out Ash began to hear screaming in the distance. Ash wanted to scream himself. Couldn't the peace last?!

"Come on, guys. Let's see what's up." Ash and his team picked up the pace and were quickly treated to the sight of two teens stuck in a net in the tree. "Boreas! Wing Attack on the rope!" Ash yelled. The Staravia quickly complied, and the boys were dumped unceremoniously to the ground, where they landed with an oomph before looking up.

"Ash?" The both boys asked at once. Ash squinted at them, before blinking in recognition.

"Sherman? Ben? It's great to see you guys! How's your Wooper—Darling, right? And your Beedrill! …um, Needles?"

"Needles is good. She loves her new partners." Ben replied.

"Darling's doing great, she's a Quagsire now." Sherman added. "But let's talk about you—I'm glad you're okay. I heard about the Team Rocket attack on the Pokemon Center." Ben raised his eyebrows. While Ash had mentioned that something had happened in Viridian, he hadn't been overly forthcoming on the details.

Ash grinned. "Not the only time either. I'm beginning to lose track of how often I run into them." Now Sherman and Ben both looked surprised. Ash supposed that made sense—generally repeatedly running into terrorist groups wasn't something kids their age had to worry about.

"So… where are you going?" Sherman asked after a brief silence. While he clearly wanted to ask about the other encounters it was equally obvious that Ash didn't want to elaborate.

"Hidden Village. Aren't you two headed there too?" Ash asked. It wasn't like this route was on the main road between Saffron and Cerulean.

"No, no. We met up a while back on the road and were kind of just wandering around, you know—We both want to catch our sixth Pokemon before challenging Saffron's Gym for our third badge. There's a village around here?" Ben asked.

"Yeah" Ash replied. "It's quite small, though. But my mom said I should stop by—apparently Pokemon breeding's popular there, so they might have some tips. But that doesn't explain why you guys were stuck in a tree."

Ben sighed, and then began explaining how he'd caught sight of an extremely rare Bulbasaur and had attempted to catch it, with Sherman following, before it chased them into the trap. Both seemed highly embarrassed about the whole ordeal.

Ash, Ben, and Sherman both decided to head to the Hidden Village together, trading stories and training tips. Ash also explained to them why he himself was not going to be immediately challenging the Saffron Gym, instead bypassing the city to head to Vermillion: the radio broadcast that had informed him of Lt. Surge's giveaway had also warned that the tickets were in short supply.

Both Ben and Sherman admitted that they didn't care about the tickets, and in fact Sherman wanted to retire from Pokemon training after he got his third badge. He acknowledged that Pokemon training wasn't for him, but he wasn't exactly sure what he wanted to do—he'd loved school, but he didn't want to teach, and chemistry wasn't his favorite subject, which ruled out a lot of other high-paying jobs. He also said that he would only attempt challenging the gym leader once—if he failed, then he'd go back to Viridian to job search and wait until he had a reason to go to Celadon City, which had a notoriously easy gym leader, before trying to round out his first three badges.

This was a novel idea to Ash—while he knew people who didn't want to be full time Pokemon trainers, like Pallet's own Rick who was going to go into his father's evolution stone business, all of the youngsters he'd talked to up until that point expressed a desire to challenge the Indigo League at least once before changing careers. Ben also admitted that he wanted to give it a shot before he followed the family tradition and became a scientist.

The group also talked about their Pokemon—of the three of them, Ash was the only who regularly traveled with his Pokemon out of their pokeballs, but the two others admitted to doing it on occasion. The downside was that it meant their Pokemon had to be fed and allowed to rest more often, which made it less popular than just keeping Pokemon in pokeballs, which suspended animation and kept its inhabitants from becoming more hungry or tired than they were when they were let in.

By this point each of the teens had nearly a full roster of Pokemon to call up. Sherman had his Quagsire Darling, a Primeape named Bananas, a Linoone called Bandit due to her unfortunate propensity for theft, a Nidorino called Spikes, and his third selection Pokemon, a Swellow that he named Glory. Ben also had five Pokemon; his Beedrill, Needles, a Sand Wormadam, Quiver, a Shellder, Clamp, an Abra, Flash, and a Hoothoot who Ben had yet to name because, like Ash, the pokeball had refused to be sent.

Sherman couldn't help but snigger as the two Pallet natives commiserated over the obvious evilness of the rogue Pikachu who had broken the Pokemon Transfer Machine.

By the time they were finished talking the two had arrived at the Hidden Village. It was, as it turned out, incredibly underwhelming. There were two houses with about 20 meters between each other in the middle of relatively large clearing, as well as what could have been a few more buildings scattered around in the distance, behind a thinner forest than that which lay on the other sides of the houses. What was surprising was the Pokemon that littered the area.

As the teens approached the Rattata, Oddish, Pidgey, and myriad of other Pokemon scattered in every direction. None of the boys had ever seen such a large group of Pokemon from so many different species in the wild before, and they spent the time walking through the clearing to the nearest house trying to come up with increasingly improbable ideas on why this would be. By the time they arrived at the first house Sherman was suggesting that this was where the grandfather of Arceus was born, and all the Pokemon would come to pay their respects via interpretive dance.

The house that they'd arrived at was a two story house with a aquamarine roof and a green door. A fence surrounded the back of the property, and within it Pokemon babies of all kinds played, the most abundant of the lot being Pichu. The entire yard was nearly overrun with the little yellow babies, and the two trainers couldn't help but laugh as the little Pokemon were constantly running into each other and shooting sparks in every direction, including at the massive Nidoking and Nidoqueen who seemed to be attempting, unsuccessfully, to sleep in the middle of the fenced area.

Their laughter soon drew a man out of the house. He was obviously getting on in age, but seemed surprisingly spry and robust as he hefted a bucket of what looked to be Pokemon food with one hand and carried a yellow and black Pokemon egg with the other.

"Hello, there! I'm Ethan, and I run this fine establishment. And who would you be?"

Ash, Ben, and Sherman turned to the man and politely introduced themselves, before asking about why exactly he seemed to have well over 12 Pokemon, and why so many of them were Pichu.

"Well, my wife and I—she's inside now, we just had a few eggs hatched so she's caring for them but this one here's a late bloomer—we breed Pokemon for a living. That means we get an exemption from that law about the maximum Pokemon. As for the Pichu, well, they're the most in demand, don't you know? Not only are they great pets, but they can also be used in generators and the like. I mean, here in Kanto basically every electrical source is in some way powered by Pikachu!"

"Really?" Ash asked. He'd never thought of it before. Sure, his school had made mention of it—and even had a diagram of the sort of cylindrical treadmill which Pikachu would run on to power something, but every electrical source seemed a bit of a stretch.

"Oh, sure! Take you trainers' Pokedexes, for instance. Have you ever wondered about the two little insulated wires you can take out from either side?"

The trainers pulled out their Pokedexes and, sure enough, there was a plastic cover-like thing on each side, and underneath was a wire each, one in red and one in black. The black one actually didn't seem to be connected to anything. Ethan led them through the house to the yard, where he sat down the Pokemon food and called over a young looking Pikachu. After rubbing its head for a bit, he asked for one of their Pokedexes.

"Mine's at 35% right now…" Sherman admitted. Ash's was at 80%, and Ben's at 62%, so it was Sherman's that was handed over to get charged.

The man grabbed the black wire and stuck one end on the Pikachu's left cheek, before sticking the other in the ground. He placed the other end of the red wire that was connected to the Pokedex on the Pikachu's right cheek, before stepping back.

"Power, Pikachu." The man said, and the Pikachu sparked his cheeks. Immediately the little battery symbol on the upper right of the Pokedex began to fill up, and by the time the Pikachu was done the charge was back at 100%. The teens were stunned.

"And that there is the power of a good generator." The man laughed. He pulled the wires of the Pikachu's cheeks—they seemed almost magnetically connected—before handing Sherman back his Pokedex and shooing the Pikachu to go play with the other Pokemon.

"That was awesome!" Sherman shouted. "Wait—then why isn't my Pokedex powered that quickly when I plug it in?"

The man began explaining about how difficult it was to keep the power of the electrical charge over distances, which Sherman responded to by asking if they could improve it by releasing more, and before long the two were deep into a discussion on the merits of one kind of electrical power plant over another. Ben and Ash stood to the side and tried to act like they were following the conversation.

Thankfully their savior came in the form of the woman who could only be Ethan's wife. She marched into the yard from the house and demanded to know if Ethan had offered his guests anything to eat.

Within five minutes all of them were seated at a table, the late blooming egg sat to one side, munching on the first homecooked meal they'd had in weeks, and expressing their thanks as the old lady, Emma, talked to Ash and Ben about proper Pokemon care while Sherman talked her husband's ear off about electricity.

By the end of dinner the old couple demanded that the three boys stay the night, and all were too exhausted to argue.

Before the crack of dawn the teens were up again, this time to help the couple as thanks for their generosity.

Ash, due to his obvious upper arm strength (he had been carrying Triton until they went inside) was put in charge of walking eggs to speed up 'hatch time' (he was given five eggs and told to circle the house until they moved), Ben was placed in front of a bunch of babies in desperate (to them) need of attention, and Sherman was put in charge of measuring each of the Pichu's and newly evolved Pikachu's electrical strength for the plant manager who would be picking ten of them up the next week.

Ash thought that Sherman had gotten by far the best deal—he seemed captivated with the differences in electrical output that factors such as diet and age could cause, and Ethan was now talking with him about the different species the rest of the world used for their power needs.

By noon it was obvious that Sherman was going to abandon his Pokemon journey here and now; the old couple had promised that if he stuck around, and continued to help until the plant manager arrived, they'd give him a recommendation.

As the two remaining trainers set out the next day they were amazed at the utter delight Sherman had shown when asked if he wanted to pursue that career, and Ben admitted to Ash that he didn't know if he felt the same way about being a scientist.

"It's just… everyone in my family is a scientist, so I never considered another career option. But Sherman was basically ecstatic about the idea of working in the plant, and… well, I don't know if I'll feel the same about working in a lab." By this point the two were halfway across the clearing to the other house, which the couple had informed them was a young woman named Melanie's, but that didn't deter Ash from stopping to help Ben.

"Well, what kind of scientists are in your family?" He asked. His mother had always emphasized the importance of information before forming any kind of opinion.

"Oh, all sorts. My Dad's in TMs, but Mom's in anthropo-biomedical engineering. And my aunt actually helped make the latest Safari ball!" Ben grinned, but the smile quickly faded. "But I don't know if I want to do any of that."

"Wait, who did you shadow last year?" Ash asked. The year prior Pallet Basic Education had made all fourteen year-olds shadow an adult of their choice for a day to get a better idea of what working was like. Ash had shadowed his mother, but all he'd remembered was how boring he thought gardening was—his mother said it was peaceful, but there was too little excitement for Ash to ever consider it for a career.

"I shadowed my mom. They were attempting to use the spores from Cottonee to create a sleep aid—it was so cool! See, they had the Cottonee perform the move, and then they collected the spores and put them in a centrifuge, which, like separated the spores into all its parts, then they used this really fancy microscope to look at the… why are you looking at me like that?"

Ash stared at him. "Why are we having this conversation?! You found what your mom did fascinating! Do that!" 

"Oh. Oh! Oh, I could totally become a biomedical engineer, couldn't I?"

"Yes!" Ash shouted, exasperated. Both boys stared at each other for a few seconds, before bursting into laughter.

"I was being kind of silly wasn't I?" Ben asked. "It's just, I haven't been doing anything scientific recently, and I guess I forgot how enthralling science can be."

"Can't say I feel the same way." Ash admitted. "But my mom says when I talk about being champion I look like a Teddiursa that's just seen honey." The two teens, finally over their minor crises of faith, turned back towards Melanie's house and took the last few steps to her door.


	12. Melanie

Just before the teens actually got close enough to knock they heard a growl. Around the side of the house loomed a hostile Pokemon, no taller than a toddler.

"Bulbasaur!" Ben gasped. Ash guessed it was the same Bulbasaur that had trapped the two other teens in the net the day before. It certainly looked menacing enough to be the assailant.

" _Bulbasaur."_ The Pokemon intoned in what had to be the most threatening voice Ash had ever heard. Tyche slipped behind him and Triton tried to hide in his tank but both Breloom and Boreas hopped closer, obviously offended that the little Pokemon thought it could do anything to them. Before an actual fight could break out, the door swung open.

"Bulbasaur! I told you not to scare visitors like that! They don't look harmful at all!" The girl reprimanded. She was tall, and wore red overalls over a pink shirt. Her hair was the same color as Ash's mother's—so black it looked blue—and she held a squirming Paras in her hand.

"Your Bulbasaur trapped me in a net yesterday!" Ben screamed. He was obviously upset that any Pokemon owner would allow their Pokemon to behave like that.

"Bulbasaur's not mine." The girl said, putting down the Paras. "I take care of abandoned Pokemon, you see. It's better now than it used to be, but abandoned Pokemon still have a lot of trouble adapting to living in the wild, particularly if they're lab born, so I try to help them cope." Below her the Paras chirped happily and scuttled away.

"Oh." Ben said, slightly embarrassed.

"Wait, I thought that the League laws were supposed to stop Pokemon abandonment?" Ash asked.

"They are," Melanie sighed. "but no law is perfect, and a lot of owners simply don't want to admit that they can no longer care for a Pokemon to someone else, so they just release the Pokemon."

"That's horrible!" Ash said. "But why would anyone abandon Bulbasaur?" He winced as soon as he heard the words he was saying—while he personally would never have caught something like a Rattata, he was in no way saying that its low potential was a reason to release it. Thankfully Melanie seemed to understand what he had meant. She glanced down at the still growling Bulbasaur and sighed.

"I think it's because he doesn't want to battle. I know Bulbasaur seems aggressive, but he doesn't like to play-fight like the other Pokemon, and I think his former owner got fed up."

"Just because he wouldn't fight?" Sherman yelped.

"That's so messed up." Ash agreed. Below them the Bulbasaur seemed surprised. Ash grimaced—it was obvious that Bulbasaur thought that all Pokemon trainers were obsessed with battling. While Ash did love battles, if he had a Pokemon that didn't want to battle, he wouldn't force it to. He'd probably just—he'd give it to a friend!

Ash glanced to Sherman and then down at the Bulbasaur before kneeling in front of the abandoned Pokemon. "Do you see the guy standing next to me?" He asked.

" _Bulba_ " The Bulbasaur responded distrustfully.

"Well, he doesn't want to be a Pokemon trainer forever. In fact, he wants to be a scientist." The Bulbasaur relaxed his stance and cocked his head. Beside Ash Ben jolted, having realized what Ash was doing, and kneeled next to him.

"That's right, Bulbasaur. I mean, I'm going to keep on battling for this Indigo Championship, but I've already got at least four, probably five, Pokemon for that. What I really need is someone who likes learning things as much as I do." At this Bulbasaur looked even more eager. Ben grinned and began to tell the blue and green creature the same story he had been telling Ash earlier about Shadowing day, and the seed Pokemon inched closer and closer to the future scientist as he talked.

Next to Ben Ash grinned up at Melanie, who grinned back. It was obvious that she was ecstatic that Bulbasaur had finally found a friend, and she and Ash moved off to give the two some bonding time.

"What brings you here, anyway?" Melanie asked.

"My mom told me I should come." Ash answered.

"Your mom?"

"Yeah. Delia Ketchum? Do you know her?" At this Melanie startled and turned towards him.

"Delia? You're Delia's son?" Cautiously Ash nodded.

"She's my aunt!" Melanie shouted.

"Really?!"

"Yes! Oh my Arceus, I haven't seen her in years! You must be her son! You were such a pipsqueak the last time I saw you. She was calling you her little Cubchoo then—you were always so sick!" Ash turned beet red.

"I was not!"

"Yes you were! You were constantly snotty and gross! I was like twelve so I didn't want to go near you! I think it was because you kept on sneaking outdoors when you shouldn't have. When my mom and I were visiting it was the middle of winter and you still sprinted outside the second Delia's back was turned because you saw a Pidgey!" Ash's blush had not faded.

"Well, why haven't I heard of you then?" Ash asked, trying to regain his dignity.

"Oh, you probably have. Melanie's actually my middle name. But my mom named me Nymphadora, so what was I supposed to do?"

"You're Nymphadora?" Ash shouted. He remembered his mom's tales of her niece that she had taught to cook and garden.

"Yes!" The two grinned at each other, and then began to pass stories of each other back and forth in earnest, both desperately trying to embarrass the other.

Ash lost. Badly.

As the two walked back to the house Ash tried to get the blush to leave his face—Melanie had just finished regaling him about the time Delia called her mother, Delia's sister, to ask if it was normal for toddlers to put their (thankfully empty) potty-training toilets on their heads and run around screaming that it was eating them. Ash had decided to quit the impromptu embarrassment game while he was behind, and the cousins were now ready to check on Ben and the Bulbasaur.

They found the two lying next to each other, fast asleep. One of the petals that made up Bulbasaur's bulb was drooping, and distinctly yellow spots dotted the area the two sat in.

Ash and Melanie laughed as they realized the two had accidently conked themselves out. Unfortunately, they couldn't use Boreas' wings to blow away the spores because he and the rest of Ash's Pokemon had gone exploring while the cousins reminisced, which meant the two had to do it the hard way.

Melanie carefully went around the spored area until she could reach her front door, slipping in and emerging a few seconds later in a face mask, with another for Ash as well as a sealable bag to put the sleep inducing clusters. The two spent the next few hour diligently picking up every yellow speck they could find until Ben and Bulbasaur finally began squirming awake.

"Hello sleepy heads" Melanie snickered.

"Have a nice nap?" Ash added.

Ben took one look at their bag of yellow clumps and groaned.

"We were just experimenting!" He defended.

"Well, I think I'm going to start experimenting with how long it'll take you to repay the effort I just put in to wake you up!" Ash retorted, laughing.

"Let's see… what needs to be done?" Melanie hummed.

Ben groaned again.

By the time he stood up he'd been put in charge of dinner, dishes, cleaning the roof, doing the taxes, and solving world peace, and the two cousins were debating adding on discovering Arceus for good measure.

He argued them down to the first two, and began the arduous process of sandwich making, his one culinary skill, as Bulbasaur played the role of overseer, much to Ben's chagrin (Bulbasaur was not afraid to make his opinion of Ben's skills known via Vine Whip).

The rest of the day was spent catching the other group up on what had gone on—Ben had found Ash's mom's harmless deception hilarious, and Melanie thought the fact that it only took an hour for Ben to convince Bulbasaur to be his Pokemon was "The most adorable thing ever!" No, Ash did not feel the same way. He was nearly a fully grown adult man. And no, he did not coo when Bulbasaur climbed into Ben's lap to cuddle. He had much better control of his emotions than that, no matter what Melanie says.

Ben set out that evening—he wanted to get to Saffron City as quickly as possible to show his parents his new capture and career choice—but Ash waited until noon the next day. This was his first time he remembered meeting a relative and despite all the blushing and mortification he had a great time talking with Melanie and picking up some tips from her about how to deal with Pokemon who may not have been treated the best in the past.

As he set out just after lunch he vowed to get his revenge on his mother. Telling him he could 'learn a lot' from visiting the Hidden Village really didn't prepare him at all for the surprise of meeting a cousin.


	13. Stormy Skies

A Poliwag skittered nervously back into the lake from where it had been watching Ash by the water's edge as the teen and his Pokemon walked past. Ash had arrived at Route 6 nearly a week ago, and had only made it to the lake that day. He knew that it was quicker to cut through the relatively dense foliage rather than follow the path, but after getting lost on Route 5 he was leery of going off the path again—he knew he was behind many, if not all, of his classmates and he really wanted the ticket to the S.S. Anne.

Still, it was nearing sundown, and Ash and his team had been making progress all day, so Ash felt secure enough in his headway to stop by the lakeshore for the night. He set Triton's cage down by the edge of the water so that the little dragon wannabe could hop in and gave his Pokemon a little break to stretch out. Ash followed their example, going through all the exercises that AJ had suggested until his muscles began to ache, the sign of a good workout. Done, he began setting up his Pokemon to train.

Tyche, who was tantalizingly close to evolution, was paired with Triton. She used her Magical Leaf attack continuously on the little blue Pokemon, and when he was close to fainting she practiced her heal pulse until he was better. When he came up with the exercise Ash hoped the extra effort would lead to evolution on his Kirlia's part and an increased resistance to a super effective attacks on Triton's, but instead, after one particularly harsh barrage, Triton had tried to use a Twister to block the next attack. While it hadn't worked perfectly, it was effective enough that he and his trainer spent the next few sessions, including this one, practicing how to redirect even unavoidable attacks at least partially through the move.

Also hard at work, Ash's Staravia Boreas was practicing a new move—Take Down. The move generally caused a large amount of danger to the attacker, making most trainers wary of it, but for Pokemon with the reckless ability, like Boreas, the damage caused by the move to the opponent was so much greater… when the move was perfected, which it wasn't. Currently Boreas was just trying to manage damaging the ground with his attack, and was unsuccessful enough that Tyche had to go over to his work area every few minutes to heal him up so that he could keep practicing. Thankfully, the Pokemon never seemed to take the near continuous failures as a sign he should stop trying. Unfortunately, that meant that Ash had had to intervene on a number of cases to keep serious damage from occurring.

Finally there was Bacchus. The Breloom was currently working on Focus Punch, the same move he had been working on since AJ's gym. While the grass/fighting type had technically perfected the move according to the Pokedex, Ash felt if it took less time to build up it would be much more useful. To that end the two had been working nonstop during training hours to both decrease the charge time and make him harder to distract. Unfortunately, it wasn't working well. While there had been some progress, every time he was distracted he had to start again and he hadn't managed to get the charging time lower than five seconds. As dusk approached Ash sighed, knowing it was time to move on.

"Good job, Bacchus, but I think we'll give this one a rest. I'm sorry for wasting your time like that."

The Breloom, who had been looking increasingly annoyed, now cooed at Ash, obviously blaming himself for their failure.

"It's not your fault! The Pokedex said it was impossible, and it was right. I should have guessed that someone would have already tried to perfect it."

Bacchus grumbled angrily and stomped his foot, before closing his eyes and charging. Ash shouted for him to stop, but Bacchus was on a roll and refused to be stopped. He sped up pulling back his fist and punching in front of him, uncaring of who was hit. This was unfortunate, because he was headed straight for Tyche. The blow knocked Tyche back head over heels, regardless of her type advantage, and as she flew through the air she began to glow, transforming midflight into an entirely new form—Gardevoir.

Enraged, she turned back to Bacchus and unleashed a super powerful Confusion straight at her teammate. Bacchus growled back at her and sent Bullet Seeds her way, dodging the Psychic energy as he did so. She returned fire with another Confusion, before Teleporting out of the way of the incoming attack.

"STOP!"

Both Pokemon turned to look at Ash, who had been desperately trying to stop the fight since it began. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, before opening them to glare at his Pokemon.

"We. Are. A. Team. And I will tolerate no infighting. Bacchus, you were wrong to attack Tyche without warning like that, even if you didn't mean to. You should always be aware of your surroundings—and that goes for you too, Tyche! Not only that, but there was no need to escalate the situation. What Bacchus did was wrong, but you should have figured out why he did it before immediately attacking."

Both Pokemon, now shame faced, mewled at each other by way of apology. Ash sighed again, then smiled. "That said, Congratulations on the fast build up and lesser need for focus, Bacchus, and on the evolution, Tyche. I'm proud of both of you."

The team spent the next few minutes calming down from the sudden surge of adrenaline and celebrating in the accomplishments of two of their members, before Ash called it a night and the group crowded in a huddle together to fall asleep. Thankfully by the time Tyche was a Kirlia she'd stopped sleeping on Ash's head, so there was no need to deal with the full weight of a final evolution on his cranium. As the last rays of sunlight disappeared across the blackness Ash opened his eyes one more time to stare at his team—his family, and he fell asleep with one thought in the forefront of his mind: this, right here, was where he was meant to be and what he was meant to be doing, and he was so happy to have his Pokemon to do it with.

Dawn broke the next day to find a Pokemon trainer and his Pokemon rubbing the sleep out of their eyes as they prepared for the day's journey. Ash was checking the weather forecast as he shoved an energy bar into his mouth, and Gardevoir was helping Boreas put on his harness. Triton was still in the water, having a great time playing with the local Pokemon. While he was at about the same level as his teammates power-wise, emotionally he was still a child, and the difference was clear as he and some local Poliwag play-wrestled near the middle of the lake.

The weather forecast warned of an incoming downpour, set to hit that night, and Ash really wanted to be indoors when it hit. Thankfully, his map said that there was a Route Pokemon Center within a day's journey, so after packing up the last of the supplies the group began their march.

About an hour or two after dinner (while they normally stopped and set up camp by that point, Ash really wanted to avoid the storm), as they were headed up a hill, the group began to hear what could only be described as a combination of a howl and a wail. Ash and his Pokemon rounded the top of the hill, and from that vantage point could see an incredibly tall rock formation jutting out from the middle of the path. There, on the very top of the mesa, sat a little black creature, indiscernible from the distance.

Ash gestured his Pokemon forward, and as they neared the blob cleared until the outline of a Houndour was clearly visible. The little dark/fire type did not look to be in good shape; it was obviously scratched up and had a dented headpiece. It whimpered as it looked down the path, obviously searching for something that just wasn't there.

"A Houndour…" Ash murmured. Incredibly rare in Kanto, he hadn't even considered the Dark Pokemon as an option. He examined it more closely. It was obviously not up for a battle, and seemed incredibly weak. He fished out a potion, but the Pokemon angrily batted it away. The Pokemon had a similar reaction to all attempts to feed him berries. Finally, Ash turned to Tyche and had her use Heal Pulse.

Unable to dodge on the plateau, the Houndour was hit straight on by the blast, and whimpered even as some of its cuts healed. Ash tried to talk to it, but every attempt was rebutted. Stumped, Ash continued onwards. There was little else he could do.

Ash and his Pokemon arrived just in time to avoid the downpour, though Boreas, still not a fan of water, was hit by a few droplets on the way in and refused to leave his newly acquired perch next to an open fire in the wide main area of the Center upon arrival. Ash quickly returned the rest of his Pokemon (while having one Pokemon out in a Pokemon Center was considered okay, more than that was disruptive) and went to the other half of the center to get a snack.

Because it was a Route Center, the entire building was not well equipped: the cafeteria was buffet style, Nurse Joy wouldn't do check-ups, only necessary care, and there was only five rooms, all of which were taken by the time Ash had arrived. Thankfully, after a very small completely non-demeaning bit of begging, Nurse Joy had acquiesced that Ash could sleep on the large C shaped couch beside the fire in the main area. For now, though, he was eating next to Boreas.

Also on the couch was a group of guys, all noticeably older than Ash, but none older than their early twenties. In front of one blue haired man sat six pokeballs.

"Yeah, my Dad sent me a Manectric, so I'm officially full up." The boy bragged. Beside him, one of the others looked at the collection in confusion.

"I thought you already had six Pokemon." He said.

"Well, sure, yeah… but when your Dad wants to send you a _Manectric_ you don't say no. I just left the Houndour my idiot Grandfather gave me back on the route. It was so hard! The little idiot kept on trying to follow me. I had to use my Nidoking to beat it up and put it on a freaking stack of rocks before it gave up. Maybe after my third badge if I'm feeling generous I'll go back and pick him up. No big loss on my part, though; little fleabag wasn't good for anything anyway."

Ash, who had been unwittingly listening in up until that point, couldn't hold back his temper and leapt up, getting in the blue haired trainer's face.

"That's illegal!" He shouted, looming over the braggart as he panted in anger.

"So? Watcha going to do about it? If you tell anyone it won't end well for you—I'm a Damian, and we never get in trouble." The loudmouth sneered at Ash, reminding him at once of the older boys and girls in the academy, of the schoolyard bullies who had tried so hard to make his childhood miserable, and Gary, his rival, who had succeeded more than any of them. Ash turned away, refusing to admit defeat, and went straight to the large admittance desk, where he told Nurse Joy what the boy had said.

She didn't have good news.

As it turned out the Damians were an overly affluent family who lived in the area and worked in large part as lawyers. Ash dimly remembered hearing about them before—There had been a small scandal a few years back when Giovanni hired them as his legal team rather than using the League one that all Gym Leaders were automatically provided with. Nurse Joy said she'd send a report, but warned him it would go nowhere fast.

Now even more upset, Ash turned to his last hope—the phone kiosks. He sat down in one and dialed a number. It rang twice before a face crowded into the screen.

"Ah, Ash! I'm sorry to say that I'm still working on—"

"I'm not calling about that." Ash said, dejected and trying to keep his hope that the Professor would have a solution at a pragmatic level. Professor Oak looked concerned. "I'm on route 6, and there's this guy…"

As Ash spilled his story, Professor Oak looked more and more enraged, and once the trainer finished he actually had to leave his office for a few seconds. He came back only a minute or two later with an Eevee in his lap. Ash actually remembered the little Pokemon from a demonstration at Pallet Basic Education, and tried to muster a smile for it. Professor Oak nodded a silent thanks for his efforts, before bluntly informing Ash that there was little he could do.

"The Damians are incredibly well connected. A move against them simply isn't possible. Arceus knows they've done some awful things in the past, but no one can touch them. It's the common consensus of the media that they have enough blackmail on enough government officials that even indisputable evidence wouldn't warrant a conviction." Ash clenched and unclenched his hands, trying to remember how upset his mother would be if he went over there and bashed the Damian guy's head in. Beside him Boreas, who had followed Ash after the initial argument with Damian, cooed softly and Ash rubbed his head in thanks.

Professor Oak coughed to get Ash's attention before continuing. "The good news is that the boy definitely did mess up. The Indigo League is very specific about the Pokeball limitations, and Damian broke the rules. Because he left Houndour, we could treat it as if he had simply given the Pokemon to his Selection official." Ash raised his eyebrow. "Yes, I am well aware that that is nowhere near what actually occurred, but because it means that the family won't have to do as much work and you already said that he doesn't want it back it should be undisputed.

Anyway, as I was saying, if we say that he gave his Pokemon to his Selection official, and that person gave it to me, then we can give it to you and make sure it stays out of Damian's hands. What do you say?" Ash quickly agreed and the two spent the next few minutes making plans.

By the time all of the 'i's were dotted and the 't's crossed it was well after 23:00, and nearing the start of a new day. But Ash, on public record, had just gotten a new Pokemon. Now he all he had to do was actually go and catch it. The Damian and his group had gone upstairs hours ago, so it was just Nurse Joy who saw Ash headed out into the thunderstorm, and she whispered a prayer to Ho-Oh under her breath as he did.

It took significantly longer to get back to the rock formation than it did going the other direction, even with all of Ash's Pokemon safely tucked in their pokeballs, far from the lightning and pouring rain. The wind made the droplets fall nearly horizontally, straight at Ash, and there was barely a pause between each streak of lightning and each crack of thunder, warning of the danger being outside posed.

Finally the mesa was in sight, and a barely visible pure black lump could still be made out in the space of a lightning strike.

Ash picked up his pace, not even pausing once he arrived at the formation—instead he began to scramble up the rocks, scraping his knees over and over again as a sort of blind panic began to take over.

In the harshness of the storm all Ash could think of was how the Houndour had spent the last few hours alone, dealing with the rain and the wind and the burgeoning wildfire that he could see coming closer from a distance without any trainer, parent, or even random shelter to protect him.

As he scrambled onto the plateau he heard the Houndour whimpering. He shrugged off his jacket and used it to wrap up the little pup. He hadn't realized before exactly how small the dark/fire type was until he was holding the soaked-to-the-bones creature in his arms. He carefully reached around the Pokemon and pulled out a pokeball, absorbing the Houndour into his team. Shoving it into his jacket as he pulled it back on, he pulled out another pokeball to release into the air.

Boreas appeared in a burst of light and Ash shouted out a warning, before jumping onto the back of the normal/flying type. The Staravia worked hard to keep the descent slow, but barely managed to keep it from being injurious. The second his feet touched the ground Ash returned Boreas, beginning his long journey back to the Pokemon Center.

It took just over an hour back at the Center for Nurse Joy to assure Ash that Houndour would be fine. She wheeled the little Pokemon out into the main area, where the little Pokemon eyed Ash warily.

"Houndour are pack Pokemon." Nurse Joy explained. "Not only did his last pack abandon him, he's only a baby—he'd instinctively latched onto Damian and his other Pokemon, and now they're gone."

Ash approached the Houndour as one would a wild wounded Pokemon: tentatively, cautiously, and with every cell in one's body working to exude kindness and safety. The Houndour didn't move away, so Ash counted the effort as a success.

"Hello, little buddy. My name's Ash." Behind him, Nurse Joy whispered quietly that the Damian had named him Crusher. As she did so, though, the dark/fire type grimaced. "You don't like that name, do you?" It—he—shook his head. "Well then, let's get you a new one." Ash proceeded to explain to the Houndour how he named his Pokemon, the whole time quietly nearing the Pokemon until at last the pup was on his lap, comfortable and relaxed and listening.

"…How about Aether? No? Um… Chronos? Thanatos? How about… Eacus?" The pup barked, waggling its little tail behind him. "Eacus it is!" Having chosen the name, Ash showed the Pokedex to the pup, before aiming it at Eacus.

"The result of multiple crossbreeds of Growlithe and dark-type Pokemon, Houndour are fiercely loyal. While they can be very aggressive, they are also well known for its ability to work in a team. This Houndour is male and has the ability 'flash fire', as well as the hidden ability 'unnerve'. It knows the moves Leer, Ember, and Howl, as well as the egg move Beat Up."

Too exhausted to absorb the information, Ash got permission from Nurse Joy to spend the night in the hospital with Eacus and the rest of the team joined them in their attempt to sleep off the events of the day with what little of the night there was left.


	14. The Damian

By the time Ash wrestled his eyes open the next day it was nearly lunch and the first thought he had was that he'd forgotten to call his mom. Still bleary eyed, he left Eacus and the rest of his team in the bed with the surprisingly chipper Bacchus to watch over them and spent the next half hour or so at the phone kiosks, reassuring his mother that he had not been effected by the blackouts or temporary forest fire the rolling storms had caused. He also told her about his new Pokemon, named after an old moniker for Cobalion, but it somehow seemed to slip his mind to explain the exact circumstances in which the Houndour was obtained. He was sure it had nothing to do with his mother reacting badly to hearing about the danger he willingly put himself in.

Finished, he made to stumble back to bed only to be accosted by all of his Pokemon in desperate need of food. By the time they, and he, finished their meals he felt more alive and was more than ready to go back on the road.

About half an hour into walking the group had to stop. Little Eacus was having significant trouble keeping up with the rest of the group, and no one could carry him as they were all resting their arms for Triton (who was becoming increasingly heavy) and battles. Bacchus and Tyche split off from the group and came back a few minutes later to lead them to a clearing a quarter kilometer or so away from the road, just far enough that they would not be accosted by random trainers, and Ash set to spending the rest of the day training.

Tyche, newly evolved, set to getting a better grip of her own body. Ash felt this would only take a day because the Ralts line were well known for their grace: already Tyche was moving as if she'd had her body for weeks. Given that, Ash also had her working with her Psychic energy in preparation for learning one of the most powerful psychic moves a Gardevoir could learn.

Breloom set off to practice his newly created 'Master Punch', as Ash had decided to call it. As he felt that true perfection of the move would take at least a week, Ash didn't saddle him with any other goals.

Boreas was still working on take down, but Ash also had him simply practicing taking damage to help him get the most of his reckless ability.

Triton, even though he still acted like a child, was obviously close to evolving, so Ash had him practicing a move that according to the Pokedex Horsea always learned just before they evolved: Brine. A water type move, it was characterized by the user pulling salt out of its own body and forcing it into the attack, which helped boost the damage caused, so to help Triton learn it Ash had brought many of the tiny packs of salt the Pokemon Center cafeteria offered and was having the pseudo-dragon Pokemon gorge himself on them and then try to expel the excess through a Water Gun. It was… an ongoing process.

Finally Ash turned to the newest member of the team. First he rescanned Eacus with his Pokedex, and then sat down with the little creature to go over the results.

"Alright, so you have some great moves Eacus! You're obviously pretty young, but you inherited a move called Beat Up from one of your parents, and that's awesome, so we'll focus on that."

Ash spent the next few minutes showing Eacus various clips of dark type Pokemon using the move on the Pokedex and about an hour after that practicing with him, however by that point the little Houndour was exhausted. Training obviously no longer possible, Ash didn't really know what to do. Eacus was still to hurt to be put in his pokeball, even for a little while, but he and the rest of his team were already carrying Triton and wouldn't be able to take on the extra weight. As he sat petting the little puppy napping in his lap, thinking about how to proceed, he felt a nudge on his shoulder.

Triton had hopped out of his tank and to Ash, several meters away despite his need to stay in water as much as possible. He nudged Ash again and then nodded to the pokeballs that lined Ash's belt.

"Are you sure?" Ash asked. He'd never ask one of his Pokemon to stay in their pokeball. For him a large part of the journey was spending it with them. But the Horsea nodded, obviously knowing how much Ash itched to challenge the Vermillion City Gym before the tickets were gone, so Ash got out the little dragon's pokeball and returned him.

His team now moving again, but this time with Eacus in Tyche's arms, they headed south.

Route 6 is a very hilly road, with bumps and ridges that made it as hard to see ahead as Route 1 or 5, even if it was theoretically a straighter route. Perhaps if Ash had seen straight ahead he would have chosen another way around, but it was unlikely. The second he reached the peak of the hill that had been blocking his view of the next dozen or so meters of road, he grinned. He'd been itching for a fight and who lay ahead but the person he most wanted to fight with?

The Damian and his gang sat in the small valley between hills, watching what looked like a Hitmonlee and a Hitmontop duke it out. The Hitmontop took a bad hit to his side and stumbled, before falling to the ground, fainted. One of the teens in the gang quickly returned it as he braced against the jeers of his 'friends'. The Hitmonlee was returned to the Damian as he smirked and said something to the boy who lost. The teen flushed, before handing Damian a pokeball from his belt.

"What are you doing?" Ash shouted as he and his Pokemon made his way down the hill.

"Oh look, it's the loser and his Pokemon again." Damian laughed, his gang quickly copying him.

"I thought you already had six Pokemon!"

"Well, I must have lost one…or two." Damian smirked, glancing at the whimpering Houndour in Tyche's arms.

"I challenge you to a battle!" Ash shouted. Here was his chance to pay Damian back for all the pain he caused Eacus.

"I accept." Damian sneered, gesturing for the other guys to give them room. Before long the two stood on opposite sides of the path, using the road itself as their arena. Ash gestured for Tyche to move forward. She handed Eacus to Ash and did so. Across the field, Damian laughed.

"Let's try out my new weapon." He shouted, before throwing out a pokeball. Light flashed and a Tentacruel appeared, obviously newly evolved. As it rematerialized it turned to one of the teens on the sidelines, who looked distraught but pointed behind what must have been his former Pokemon at its new owner.

"I'm your master now, Tentacruel! Let's see what you can do."

On the sidelines, only audible to Ash because of how close the teen was standing, Tentacruel's former owner whispered something under his breath. "I'll miss you, Sea Lord." Ash firmed his jaw. He'd win not only for himself, not only for Eacus, but also for all of the Pokemon who'd been given away by their owners to the Damian just because they'd lost.

"Tyche, Confusion. Calm mind if you have the time." Ash whispered.

"Sludge Wave!" Damian screamed.

The two Pokemon leapt at each other and attacked. Tyche managed to get the Confusion off, but in attempting to Calm Mind she was hit by the Sludge Wave. She teleported a few meters away and fired off another confusion, this time missing Tentacruel's wide-ranged attack. The two duked it out, constantly avoiding and aiming and being hit in a dance that their two trainers quickly lost track of. Eventually, though, Tyche's superior evasion skills won out and the Tentacruel teetered back and forth, attempting to stay standing as its master bellowed behind him, before eventually giving up and collapsing.

Damian growled, before grabbing another pokeball and releasing it. The beam materialized into a Krokorok, a native Pokemon of Unova if Ash remembered correctly. The Krokorok, in a move eerily reminiscent of its already fainted teammate, glanced to the side at another trainer, and then back at Damian, before slouching. Nonetheless, the Pokemon was obedient, and when Damian told it to attack it did with all of its power.

Tyche barely damaged it at all before she fainted just as the Tentacruel had and Ash had to return her.

"Bacchus, get in there! You know what to do!"

The grass/fighting type hopped into the field and glowered at his opponent, who snarled back, before the two began to fight. Given that Breloom was resistant to both Ground and Dark types, it only took a few moves to avenge his fainted sister. Again Damian roared, before tossing out his third Pokemon—a Nidoking.

Ash grinned.

Almost immediately the Nidoking managed to poison Bacchus—Ash had to admit that the Pokemon was well trained, but in this case that worked in his favor. Now with the benefit of poison, even if he'd lost his poison-speed advantage through evolution, the Breloom went all out, pounding his opponent to the ground before finishing his second opponent off with a well-timed Mega Drain. At this Damian outright screamed before grabbing and releasing his next pokeball.

Bacchus's new opponent was the Manectric that Damian had been bragging so much about the day before. It was here that Bacchus's loss of the ability quick feet came into play—he simply couldn't keep up as the Manectric zipped around him, wearing him down with one neutral move after the other. Finally, just as the damage became too much for him, Bacchus managed to get off one Master Punch, before succumbing to his wounds and falling.

"Bacchus, return!" Ash shouted, before sending out his only option—Boreas.

The Staravia, who had been watching the match the entire time, was a bundle of coiled up energy as he entered the field. Without waiting for orders, Boreas attacked. Over and over again he hit the Manectric with Quick Attack, then Steel Wing, then Aerial Ace, then Tackle. Every so often he'd fly out of the electric type's reach and use focus energy, before zooming back down to hurt his opponent some more.

It took less than three minutes for the type-advantaged Pokemon to faint.

Damian by this point was nearly incoherent with rage, which certainly hadn't helped the obvious recent addition to his team be able to hear, much less follow, orders. Without a single hesitation the Damian returned Manectric and brought out his next Pokemon, this time a Larvitar.

"Only two Pokemon left!" Ash shouted across the field, even as his heart thudded. This was another hard matchup for Boreas, and he had a third opponent to faint after this. Ash wasn't sure if he'd be able to make it.

The normal/flying type certainly tried, but Larvitar wasn't effected at all by his flying moves and had super effective rock type moves to return fire with, so even as Boreas pushed himself to the limit the Larvitar was able to keep up. Finally Ash whispered for Boreas to use the Endeavor technique, and Boreas used the move, quickly following it up with a Quick Attack, but not before the Larvitar was able to through a Rock Slide at him. The two, simultaneously, fainted.

Damian laughed as he released his final Pokemon, the Hitmonlee that had been fighting earlier. "Is that it? Are you going to give up or are you going to send out that traitor Houndour? Let's see how quickly I can remind him who's really in charge!"

Ash grit his teeth, before his hand went to his final pokeball—sending out Eacus wasn't an option. As he released his final fighter, Ash was terrified. As Triton materialized on the battlefield his trainer couldn't help but feel like he'd made a big mistake. Horsea, after all, couldn't be outside of water for very long at all.

Ash could see the moment when Triton realized that his trusty tank had been emptied to allow Houndour to be carried. He could see the moment Triton realized how bad it had to be that Ash was having him fight. He could see the moment Triton recognized the Damian from Ash's angry rants earlier that day. He could see the moment when Triton firmed up, determined not to fail Ash or his new brother.

Across the field Damian laughed almost maniacally. It was obvious he knew that Horsea couldn't fight well without water, and it was equally obvious that Damian was counting the battle as a win then and there.

But if there was anything Ash knew it was that you could never give up. If someone told you you couldn't do something then you just had to prove them wrong. Between heartbeats Ash remembered every time someone told him to give up—his kindergarten teacher, who'd told him that with Gary in his age group he had no chance of becoming champion; his neighbor, Jen, who laughed in his face when he told her of his goal to be the youngest to ever get that position; Gary, who had reminded Ash of his superiority on every given occasion; even AJ, before their fight, when the battle-tested teen saw Ash as just another wannabe.

Between heartbeats Ash remembered every time he kept going—when he told his kindergarten teacher that she would regret her words; when he laughed right back in Jen's face; when he'd tied with Gary on the FPTE; and when he'd defeated AJ on the other trainer's 100th battle.

Ash grinned, and opened his mouth to spout his first near silent command.

Triton was hopping on borrowed time, and Hitmonlee was a mighty opponent. Even as Ash and Triton pulled out all the stops—Water Gun, Twister, Water Pulse, and even his newly learned, if not perfected, move Brine, victory seemed to be so far out of reach as to be an optical illusion. However, just as Triton began to weaken from the lack of water, just as his bounces began to slow and he began to stagger to one side and then the other, the Hitmonlee stopped fighting. He stopped, and he turned slightly, listening as Damian screamed himself hoarse shouting both orders and obscenities at his Pokemon, and then he looked forward, straight at Ash, who was begging Triton to hold on for just a little more. All this took place in the space of a second, but it was a very important second. With a bow to Ash, not his master, Hitmonlee started on his next—unordered—move: Rain Dance.

As Triton began to wobble so much it looked like mere moments before he fell raindrops started splashing down on every surface on the road. More and more and more rain fell and Triton began hopping faster and faster, picking up speed as he unleashed one attack after another, before finally he was consumed in a beam of bright light. As the light lifted a newly evolved—un-hopping—Seadra could be seen, shooting out the last Water Gun to faint his opponent. As Hitmonlee fell Ash made sure the Pokemon could see him bow back, in thanks of his sacrifice.

Across the field Damian was seething. He screamed at the unconscious Pokemon even as he returned it, and without thinking began to pull out another pokeball. Beside him one of his cohort grabbed his arm, flinching away as Damian turned on him before finally mumbling something about six Pokemon. Damian glared for a few seconds longer before spitting on the guy's face, but returning the pokeball to his belt. Ash also returned the newly evolved Triton, leaving only Eacus there to see Damian pull out some money only to throw it onto the ground, grinding it into the dirt and tearing it apart with his shoe before ordering his gang to grab the supplies and leaving. Behind him one Pokeball was left sitting in the dirt.

Ash picked it up and brushed it off, before pocketing it. He couldn't keep it—that would be illegal—but perhaps when he turned it in to Professor Oak the good Professor would keep the ball and its contents for when he did earn his third badge. As Ash turned back to retrace all the steps he'd made that day—Kanto law stated that any found pokeball containing a Pokemon had to be immediately turned in at the nearest Pokemon Center—Ash smiled tiredly. While this was the toughest battle Ash had faced since his first with Misty, it also felt cleansing. Damian was still out there, sure, but at least he'd gotten a few Pokemon out of the man's 'tender mercies' and planted the seeds of doubt in many of the his lackeys. It wasn't a total victory, no, but it wasn't a Cadmean victory either, and that was the most Ash could ask for. As he continued to march Eacus squirmed out of his arms, running around with more delight and energy than the little puppy had shown in the entire time Ash had known him. Ash's smile grew a little wider. Yes, it certainly wasn't a Cadmean victory.


	15. Squirtle Fever

It was midmorning and Ash was nearly at Vermillion. He figured it would be maybe an hour until he and his team arrived. The pokeball containing Hitmonlee had been sent to Professor Oak three days ago, and the good professor was nice enough to promise to keep the fighting type on hand for after Ash defeated his third gym.

Ash was holding Eacus now and Triton was bounding alongside them, which was good, as the new evolution was far too heavy for Ash to make even an attempt at carrying. They'd been hard at work training for the last few days, and Ash felt it would only be a few more until Eacus was able to journey the whole day with them.

The training front had gone well too. By now everyone had mastered their old moves, and a few had learned some new ones too—Bacchus, for instance, had learned the move Mind Reader, which allowed him to see where his opponent was about to move and hit that spot for near perfect accuracy. Currently both Tyche and Triton were also trying their hands at it. Boreas had shown no interest in the move, likely because it did not include attacking, and was instead working with Ash in his free time to ramp up the power of Take Down as he edged ever closer to evolution.

Tyche, when not practicing Mind Reader, was refining her newest move Psychic. While it wasn't particularly powerful now, once perfected it would be an extremely hard hitting main move in her repertoire. For now, though, Tyche was having trouble gathering and releasing the necessary power in a controlled beam.

As for his newest little Pokemon, Houndour had improved in leaps and bounds—literally! The puppy often had trouble staying focused, but it was hilarious to see him following the other Pokemon as they went about their tasks and trying to mimic Boreas's flight or Triton's bouncing. In fact, his propensity for tagging after his teammates ended up helping him learn a new move. After an hour of Ash trying to work with him on learning Smog, without results, Ash had allowed the puppy to play while he went to coach the rest of his team.

While Ash was working with Boreas the little Houndour snuck up on Bacchus who was practicing his self-inflicting poison powder. The Houndour jumped on his back, startling Bacchus and causing his powder to go all over the place, including in Eacus's mouth. As he sat, hacking away as he tried to get the poison out of his mouth, he accidently sent a surge of energy into his throat and the next time he coughed a giant pass of poison gas came billowing out of his mouth—Smog. While it had taken significantly more time to perfect to Ash's standards, it was still a great accomplishment.

As Ash was thinking about this and, admittedly, not spending much time watching his surroundings, he suddenly found himself plummeting below the ground. He quickly curled one arm around his neck and the used the other to bring Eacus tighter to him, getting in position to avoid major damage just in time to hit the ground. Tyche came tumbling after him, smacking into his side as Bacchus just barely missed crushing Ash's feet. Ash quickly scrambled up to a standing position, ordering Tyche to teleport them out of the hole as Bacchus used his massive legs to hop out of the pit in one bound. Above them Boreas cawed worriedly. Triton had missed falling into the hole too by only a few centimeters.

"What's the big idea? Someone could have gotten hurt!" Ash shouted, only noticing as he spoke who the apparent perpetrators of the crime were: five Squirtle, all wearing sunglasses, though the middle one's looked different from the others. They laughed at him, and as they did Eacus whimpered and curled tighter into Ash. Ash snapped, just as he had with the Damian. He pushed that thought out of his head as he ordered his Pokemon to attack. It took one hit for the Squirtle to scatter, and while his team was ready to pursue them Ash held them back—he heard the roar of a police motorcycle coming, and figured that the cops were likely the bigger concern here.

Thankfully, the Officer Jenny that called Vermillion her home was nothing like her cousin in Cerulean. She gave Ash a lift to the after he returned his Pokemon, and when asked even explained who the Squirtle were.

"They were all abandoned. A couple of years back there was a bit of a scare of a possible virus being spread through Squirtle, so a lot of people just abandoned theirs in the ocean in the hope that the virus wouldn't be able to reach people from there. Well, the ocean is a very tough place filled with very powerful Pokemon, so unfortunately most of the Squirtles died after being abandoned. But this group teamed up and eventually battled their way back to shore, and now they terrorize this city in an attempt to get back at those who abandoned them. Surge refuses to help stop them, too—he was incredibly upset when he heard that a couple of our civilians had been among the number to abandon their Squirtle, and I guess he feels like the Squirtle deserve a little vengeance. Doesn't make my job any easier, though." Officer Jenny sighed, before pulling her motorcycle up to the Pokemon Center to let Ash out.

"That sucks. I mean, I can see all sides of the argument, which is always crappy because then there's no obvious bad guy."

"There usually isn't." Officer Jenny sighed.

"Well, anyway, thanks for the ride. I really appreciate it."

"All in a day's work!" Officer Jenny grinned, before speeding off again.

Now in the Pokemon Center, Ash turned his Pokemon over to Nurse Joy for a check-up before making his way to the phone kiosks. First, as promised, he called his mom and told her that he made it to Vermillion. She congratulated him and wished him luck on challenging Surge. Thankfully, the phone call was very short, because it was the next one that he had been looking forward to for weeks now.

"Ah, Ash! And how are you? Made it to Vermillion okay?" Professor Oak asked.

"Yep, fine. Is the transfer system working?" Ash asked, his behavior a bit more curt then normal as he waited impatiently for his last selection Pokemon.

"Don't worry, got it working yesterday. Oh! And before I forget, because the system was taking so long to fix I let the selected Pokemon out into the Corral and your Shinx has evolved. It is now a Luxio! Congratulations!" Ash grinned at the screen, trying not to feel too annoyed that he hadn't been there for the evolution. He'd missed Boreas' too, and that didn't make their bond any lesser.

Finally, finally, Professor Oak told him the pokeball had been transferred. Ash thanked him, hung up, and dashed to the PC, fingers scrambling over the keyboard until he found the right box and clicked 'select' and then 'withdraw'. His fingers closed over a shiny new pokeball—red and white and the exact same size as all of his others—and he grinned.

He quickly took back his other Pokemon from Nurse Joy, before making his way out of the city again to a small clearing that lied along edge of a small river that bled off from the ocean.

Once there he released his Pokemon one by one until all that was left was his newest member. He stared down at the pokeball, savoring the moment, until Houndour headbutted him and he jolted back to reality, releasing the newest team member into the clearing.

The Luxio materialized, and called out a greeting, staring at them all with blatant curiosity.

"Hi Luxio, I'm your trainer Ash." The Luxio trotted up to Ash, nuzzling his stomach before sitting down with a satisfied look painting his face. "Nice to meet you too. Let me introduce you to the rest of your teammates—this is Tyche…" Ash introduced the Luxio to each member of his family one by one before asking and receiving permission to use the Pokedex.

"This Pokemon is a Luxio, or the Spark Pokemon, and is the second evolution in the Shinx line. It is considered the figurehead of the motion-pictures battling industry because its electricity was slow enough to be followed in the early films. This Luxio is male and has the ability 'intimidate' as well as the hidden ability 'guts'. It knows the moves tackle, leer, charge, baby doll eyes, spark, and the egg move ice fang."

By now used to his Pokemon's odd habits of having both hidden abilities and egg moves, Ash barely gave the event a second thought before praising the Luxio on his hard work and having him go through each move one at a time. As it turned out, the Luxio was actually quite good with each of the moves, including ice fang, and Ash figured only a few sessions of working on them would perfect the move.

Finished with the examination, Ash asked his new partner if he wanted to join them in training, which he got an extremely jubilant response to. They started with stretches, then sprints, then resistance training, before all but Houndour, who was still too weak, finally turned to the water. It was here that the Luxio started to hesitate, but the equally unhappy, and already soaked, Boreas cawed something at him and the Luxio growled back, before reluctantly putting one, then two paws in the water. Boreas had apparently had enough of that, so he and Bacchus dragged the poor Pokemon the rest of the way in so they could start their diving exercises.

Between plunges Ash asked the Luxio if he wanted a name, which got a positive noise in response, so Ash began to cycle through mythology in his head in search of a fitting name. Thankfully it only took one try to find a name Luxio loved—Zeus, the archaic name for Zapdos.

Finished with dives, the Pokemon began swimming laps against the current, but before they'd even really begun Bacchus yelped. Just as Ash turned to ask him what was wrong Tyche yelped. Then Ash felt it—something had just barreled, full speed, into his leg. He yelled for his Pokemon to get out of the water, turning to swim ashore himself, but as he began to stroke Zeus yelped. Less well trained than his other Pokemon, Luxio acted instinctively—he let out a Spark. In the space of half a second Ash, Bacchus, Boreas, and Triton were all electrocuted. As Ash fought desperately to stay afloat despite the pain he saw some Squirtle surrounding Eacus on shore.

The little Houndour was trying to fight back, but was too weak and type-disadvantaged and when one of the Squirtle hit him with a Water Gun he went down. Ash screamed out, fighting his burning muscles to get ashore as the Squirtle took off with his smallest teammate. He scrambled up the beach and sprinted after them, the rest of his Pokemon following close behind.

For two hours, long past the time his legs told him to give up, he raced after the Squirtle. While he'd lost track of them a few times, either Boreas or Tyche had always managed to put the search and rescue team back on track, the latter teleporting him ahead as much as possible—thanks to the giant bruise on his leg and the electrocution Ash couldn't move nearly as fast as he wanted to, even when ignoring his exhaustion. Finally he arrived at a cave which the Squirtle were guarding. Towards the back of the cave Ash could just make out Eacus. He had two Squirtle standing beside him. Ash screamed out—

"Let me in!"

But the Squirtle wouldn't budge. He ordered his Pokemon to attack them, but they just closed a massive rock over the cave door. Finally, breaking down in fear and pain and exhaustion, Ash leaned against the rock and begged.

"Please. Please. I know that you don't trust humans, I know that. And you have a good reason why. But please. I need to help Eacus—his last trainer wasn't so nice and he's only just started to heal. Please. Please let me in—I need to help him."

Just as he was about to give up hope the rock budged, before being rolled away entirely. The Squirtle eyed him with distrust but allowed him, and only him, to enter the cave. Ash had Tyche teleport back to the clearing and bring the first aid kit to the cave, where she tossed it in. He spent the next half hour working tirelessly until, at last, he let out a sigh of relief. Eacus would be fine. The Squirtle, who had been watching carefully the entire time, gestured to the already black sky and allowed the rest of Ash's Pokemon in, where they slept until the morning.

In the middle of a dream where he was a Pokemon—a Pikachu, of all things—and lived in a world solely of Pokemon, everything turned red. Ash squeezed his eyes tighter shut, before admitting defeat and squinting them open. At the edge of the cave the rock, which had blocked the doorway during the night, had been rolled back again and Ash could dimly see the Squirtle playing with his Pokemon directly in front of the dawn sun.

He yawned and sat up, his eyes darting to Eacus. The Houndour was curled up on his side, just waking up too, and the two staggered to the door to get a better look at what was going on. Outside the Squirtle were having a wrestling competition of sorts. The one with the unique sunglasses—Ash figured he was probably the boss—was having a two on one competition with two of the other Squirtles and had just been rolled to his back when a shadow came over them. Above, too far away for any attack to hit, sat the same hot air balloon that Ash had seen all the way back in Viridian.

A megaphone-amplified voice came from the ship, "This'll teach you about eating other people's picnics!", before a bunch of black dots began to rain down from the balloon, increasing in size as they fell until it was finally possible to make them out.

"Bombs!" Ash shouted running with the Pokemon back into the cave. He got himself and Eacus in just as the first volley hit, but the lead Squirtle couldn't right himself in time and barely managed to hide in his shell. Ash darted out towards the Squirtle, keeping an eye on the second volley that had begun its descent to earth. He managed to grab the Squirtle, but it became obvious that there was no way they'd make it in time. He threw himself over Squirtle, hoping to save at least one life, when the wind picked up. It blew faster and faster until there was a gale force wind blowing right at him and Squirtle, and he was barely managing to keep them attached to the ground.

He looked up, squinting against the power of the wind and saw his Staravia—no, his _Staraptor—_ fanning away all the bombs and even—Ash glanced up and grinned—and even the hot air balloon itself. A few seconds later the hot air balloon was finally out of reach and the danger had passed.

"Boreas!" Ash shouted. The newly evolved Staraptor returned his greeting and the team surrounded him, congratulating him on his victory. Unfortunately, before long the reason for the evolution was remembered and the mood sobered in seconds.

"I have to tell the police." Ash murmured, but as he did the head Squirtle shook his head. "But—oh, right. The townspeople don't like you and the only evidence is my word—don't think I didn't notice the explosives you kept in your cave." Ash added. The Squirtle nodded at one of his compatriots, who pulled out an 'explosives' container—it was full of bottle rockets and the sort, nothing that would cause the damage the bombs made. But both Squirtle and Ash knew that it didn't matter—the Squirtle were used to a less-than-stellar reputation, and Ash had just gotten a rude awakening to the flaws of the Kanto Justice System. The Squirtle looked down, before turning in the direction of the city, his eyes filled with both love and sadness. Vermillion was obviously their home, for better or for worse, and their anger over their abandonment was obviously no longer as fresh in their minds. Now their stunts and antics weren't an attempt at reprisal, they were a desperate cry for attention from the city they loved.

Ash jolted—there was no way he should've been able to tell that! He glanced back at the Squirtle boss, but the moment was gone. _What was that?_ Ash thought, before shaking his head—he would think about it some other time. For now he wanted to challenge the gym and be done with this city.

He and his team left the Squirtle on significantly better terms than they'd started with, and with everyone thankful for surviving the Team Rocket attack, Ash's team began making their way back to Route 6. Finally they peaked a hill on the road and saw Vermillion, but something was wrong. All over the west side smoke billowed. Ash had Tyche teleport them closer and the cause of the smoke became clear—an entire residential district was burning.

" _Damn_ Team Rocket!" One man shouted as he ran from the fire. Ash looked back at the blaze and realized with a start that it had been caused by the same bombs that had bombarded the Squirtle's den. Ash could see a number of police personnel working to put out the fire, but they weren't having much luck—this part of Vermillion was about the furthest away from the ocean one could get in the city, and it wasn't particularly close to the neighboring river either. But Ash—Ash knew how to help.

"Tyche, I want you to go back to the Squirtle and tell them what's going on. I want you to see if any of them are willing to help put out the fires."

The Gardevoir nodded and teleported away. Ash stood and watched, feeling helpless, until she returned—with all five Squirtle! The squad took off towards the burning buildings, shooting water at everything in sight as they went.

Near the frontlines of the battle between fire and city Ash saw a blue head on top of a police uniform look at the Squirtles and then turn and look at Ash. Officer Jenny quickly jumped on a bike and drove over to where he and the rest of his team were still standing, awkwardly waiting until they could figure out what to do.

"Is this your doing?" She questioned.

"They wanted to!" Ash defended. "Look, they might have come here at the beginning looking for vengeance, but now it's their city, and they would protect it with everything."

"I'm not accusing you!" Officer Jenny backtracked. "I just… well, I guess I was. But they really want to help us?"

"Yes!" Officer Jenny looked surprised, but didn't question Ash further. Just as she was about to go back to the fire, Ash quickly asked a question that had been nagging him since he heard the man's exclamation, and probably before then too. "What happened?"

"Team Rocket unloaded a bunch of bombs onto the houses at like four a.m. this morning. We have no idea why." Ash quickly explained what had happened at the Squirtle's den at dawn, and Officer Jenny theorized that this—this rampant destruction—was a test-run. Somehow it made the scene before them even worse. The idea that all of this—the burning, the smoke, the terror—was caused because of a ruined picnic was… well. Ash grimaced.

Finally Ash was sent to the Pokemon Center to help the injured trainers and Pokemon there, and he spent the rest of the day using every inch of his memories of his Human and Pokemon Health Classes to help the residents of Vermillion's North West side.

At around 21:00 that night, just as he was about to head to bed, a messenger from the police ran up to him with a message from Officer Jenny: "Don't worry, no one's dead and _both_ attacks are being investigated. The Squirtles have also been asked to be Vermillion's official fire department. Due to their actions today the city now loves them!"

"'s not that surprising." The trainer whose leg Ash had been wrapping up muttered, half asleep himself. "Before… before Squirtle became so rare they were… commonly used as" he yawned "as fire departments. I always liked their pranks anyway." He fell asleep. Ash grinned, pleased that some good had come out of the day, before going upstairs to his room to copy him.


	16. The Lighthouse

Ash stared at the long line of trainers in front of him. He'd woken up at the crack of dawn and sprinted over to the gym but by the time he arrived there was already at least 30 other hopefuls who'd beat him there. There wasn't a line nearly as long at Cerulean or Pewter! Well, Ash supposed that was the result of offering an award worth over 1000 dollars to anyone who won a gym battle. Ash sighed and got in line.

By the time he got to the front, about an hour later, he'd seen twelve trainers who'd managed to beat enough Gym Assistants to fight the Leader leave the building. Each and every one had lost their battle. Ash sincerely hoped that he was at a higher level than them—having a replay of what had happened at Cerulean would be extremely disappointing, and something told him that Lt. Surge would not be nearly as understanding as Misty. Thankfully he was fairly certain that he'd do better than a number of them—there was a surprising number of unevolved Pidgey and Rattata being rushed to the Pokemon Center by the losing trainers, which felt very odd to Ash but slipped his mind as he got closer and closer to the front of the line.

Finally at the reception desk, Ash was handed the appointment book and signed up for the first available time—three days later at 16:00. Ash then spent the rest of the morning wandering around Vermillion.

It really was a beautiful city—ocean side, the breeze that wafted in and permeated the city added a sort of freshness to even the oldest buildings and streets. This impression was only solidified by the cleanliness of the city. There wasn't a wrapper in sight, parks were found every few blocks, there was no smoke wafting out from any roof, and everyone walked or biked wherever they had to go. Ever since Lt. Surge had taken over Vermillion City was on a major anti-pollution campaign, and it had worked—dozens of years ago no one would even enter the water for fear of illness, and now Vermillion was the major beach destination of Kanto.

Not that Ash was thinking about that as he walked around the city. For his entire life Vermillion had been just what it was today, so Ash saw nothing unusual about the city that he'd seen so many times before—it was a favorite location of nearly every TV show and movie. Instead he kept up with his usual pattern: he went down every road, perused every shop, and stopped by every open door.

Thus far he'd been to a construction site, the harbor, a Fishing Guru going through a midlife crisis, and the regular Pokemart as well as a number of small houses between destinations.

Currently Ash was stuck in a building labeled as "The Pokemon Fan Club". An elderly man in a well pressed tweed suit had been talking non-stop for fifteen minutes about how fantastic Rapidash was. Not that Ash disagreed, mind you, it was simply that he didn't believe that it was good enough for fifteen minutes of fawning over. The gentleman spent eons waxing poetic over the fiery mane of Rapidash, before turning to its blazing speed, before focusing on its offensive capabilities. The entire time Ash desperately tried to think of a reason to leave, but his mother had taught him to never walk out of a conversation so he was resigned to staying put until the end. Finally, finally, the man came to a stop.

"I do thank you for listening to me prattle on. I must give you some sort of award. You're challenging Lt. Surge aren't you?" The man asked.

"Um… yeah. In three days." Ash responded.

"Well then, I know just how to thank you!" The man beamed. He asked to see Ash's Pokemon, and then informed the trainer that he could have the Houndour, Gardevoir, Breloom, Luxio, _and_ Staraptor become masters of the move Mud Slap by the end of the day tomorrow. Ash, ecstatic that he wouldn't have to resort to simple brute force to win against such a strong opponent when he had no ground types, wanted to agree, but before he would he told the man he'd have to speak to Professor Oak. The man, whose name was apparently Archibald Windsor, agreed affably and told Ash he'd wait at the club until the teen returned.

Ash quickly backtracked to the Pokemon Center and found a free phone kiosk among the whimpering throngs of trainers who'd lost to Lt. Surge. Once there he dialed Professor Oak's number—now memorized—and waited for the renowned researcher to pick up. Ash explained the situation and the Professor was quick to give his permission, explaining that he actually knew Archibald from various seminars and similar.

"Actually, that reminds me—I sent one of your fellow trainers, Leaf, to him, but the more the merrier I suppose—I have a friend, Bill, who lives in a lighthouse just a few miles to the north of Vermillion. Anyway, he contacted me just this morning in need of some help and it sounded fairly urgent. Leaf called me shortly afterwards for her third selection Pokemon, so I asked her to stop by. She's headed there now. Would you mind following her?"

"It's no problem, Professor. Just let me drop off my Pokemon and I'll be on my way."

"I give you my thanks, dear boy! And do call me back later to tell me what the issue was—unfortunately, Bill's voice was too muffled for me to hear the problem from him." Ash agreed again before hanging up and retracing his steps to the club. After leaving the majority of his team with Mr. Windsor Ash headed to the north exit of town and released Triton before starting a punishing pace. Ash wanted to catch up with Leaf as soon as possible—given his track record, he was worried what sort of problem Bill had that he had to call for outside help.

An hour or so later—about forty minutes away from the lighthouse—Ash finally saw a flash of movement up ahead. He called out and the movement stopped and turned towards him as he sprinted forward. Sure enough, it was Leaf, with her trusty Sunkern bouncing alongside her. She also carried a Raticate on her shoulder and a Bibarel was obviously following her from a short distance behind. Two flying types—a Crobat and a Tranquill—flew above them and Ash could almost feel them watching him as a bodyguard would their charge. In her hands Leaf held a golden Magikarp, which flopped pathetically as Ash neared Leaf.

"Leaf! Hey, great to see you! Professor Oak said you were going to see what was up with Bill and he sent me along too!" Ash panted. Leaf grinned.

"It's good to see you too! And I wouldn't mind the company—I've been traveling on my own for a while and need a change of pace."

"Yeah, what's with you only arriving today?" Ash asked. He'd been surprised when Oak had told him that Leaf had just gotten her third selection Pokemon. He would have thought she'd be well ahead of him by now, as she had for the entire League thus far.

"I wanted to spend more time training up my Pokemon." Leaf answered. "I didn't really see the rush—I've been going too fast up until recently and thought it was about time to actually stop and smell the Roselia, if you know what I mean." Ash grinned and nodded and they turned back to the path.

As they continued on their journey they both went back and forth gushing over their teams. Leaf was as upset as Ash was over Damian's treatment of his Pokemon, and agreed to keep an eye out for the money-addled Pokemon abuser.

As for Leaf she also had a full team of six. Not only did she have her Sunkern, Sunshine, who she was currently hoping to evolve, but she also had a Raticate named Nibbles, a Bibarel called Chuck, her Crobat Skylar, her third selection Pokemon Noble the Tranquil, and a shiny Magikarp who she took off the hands of an obvious swindler and named Shimmer.

Ash was amazed at how powerful her team obviously was. For Pokemon that were typically overlooked their strength nearly resonated from each of them. Her Sunkern was twice the size that the Pokemon put the Pokedex put the species at, the Bibarel would routinely leave the group to check for trouble before circling back, completely uncaring of the possible dangers of wild Pokemon in the area, and for being a relatively new addition Noble the Tranquil was obviously already invested in keeping Leaf safe—and rather distrustful of Ash.

Finally they made it to the Lighthouse. Tall and broad, it took up nearly the entirety of the cliff it had been built on. The stone which made up the walls was overrun with ivy, and the small placard which designated the lighthouse as the home of Bill [Last Name Redacted] looked older than time immemorial. Its wrought iron doors were absolutely covered in metallic reliefs of what looked like every Pokemon in existence. And just to the right of the doors which stood a full two Ashes tall was a small red button, the so-called pink Donphan in the architecture. Ash pushed it.

"Hello?"

"Um.. Hello. This is Ash—"

"—And Leaf."

"Professor Oak sent us?"

"Oh, thank goodness! Come right on in!"

The entrance creaked open to reveal an equally massive and magnificent and dark interior. Ash and Leaf stepped inside. Colossal stone columns lined the entrance hall, which itself was walled with stone and included stone archways, simple stone reliefs, and a curved stone ceiling. To the left of the door, about three columns in, another incongruity—this time a phone kiosk—was placed. Besides that the room was empty.

"Hello?" Leaf called into the vastness. The lights flickered on.

"Bill?" Ash shouted. The door at the very end of the hall on the top of a massive set of stairs creaked open. The two teens could hear scuffling coming from behind the door, and at last it opened wide enough for the scuffler to slip by. It was a—a _Kabuto_?

"Kabuto aren't that large." Ash muttered to Leaf.

"I know." She muttered back.

"I'm not a Kabuto!" The Kabuto shouted over. "I'm Bill!" Both trainers looked at each other.

"I was unaware Kabuto could speak." Ash remarked.

"I was unaware they could walk upright." She answered.

"Not to mention the size—" Ash began to add.

"—Yes, yes! Because I'm not a Kabuto!" The Kabuto shouted again.

"…Then why are you Kabuto shaped?" Leaf asked. Ash held back a snicker—he knew they were probably being rude, but this situation was so surreal he couldn't help himself.

"Well, I…" The Kabuto shuffled. "I… I was studying Kabuto you see," another shuffle, "and I've always found it best to… erm… be in character, so to speak. So I made this costume—specially fitted and everything!—to sort of get into the mind of a Kabuto. But, well, when I made the costume I guess I wasn't thinking and…" yet another shuffle, "and I may or may not have made the release button unreachable." The Kabuto, apparently tired of being embarrassed, stomped its foot. "I've been purposefully running into things all day and nothings worked." The Kabuto sighed. "Could you help me?"

The entire time Bill spoke both teens tried desperately not to laugh. But when he finally got around to asking for help both sobered up and Ash climbed the stairs and pressed the tiny red button on the side of the Kabuto shell. The costume fell off, revealing a very young looking man with messy brown hair and scattered looking eyes.

"Thank you so much! I've been stuck in that for hours! Now if you'll excuse me, I need to, erm, use the facilities." He quickly rushed back through the ajar set of doors. "Make yourself comfortable!" He shouted behind him. Ash and Leaf turned and looked at each other for a few seconds, until they and their Pokemon gave in and burst into laughter.

"I… I have never seen anything like that!" Leaf laughed between gasps for air.

"Best. Tuesday. Ever." Ash responded as he bent over, trying desperately to catch his breath, before the trainers glanced to their Pokemon and burst into laughter again.

The Pokemon seemed to be putting on an elaborate performance of the events, with Leaf's Crobat Skylar acting as her while Triton took on the role of Ash and Nibbles the Raticate did a commendable job mimicking Bill the Kabuto.

Once the teens and their Pokemon had finally calmed down they made their way to the phone and called up Professor Oak and told him why Bill had needed help.

"Oh… well, that does sound like Bill." Oak admitted. Then he brightened. "By the way—I know the two of you are looking forward to challenging Lieutenant Surge, so I thought you'd like to know that one of your classmates has gotten the first of the 3rd Gym Badges he's giving out! Gary got his just an hour ago! He's already making full use of it—four Pokemon caught so far!" Professor Oak beamed, in every respect the proud grandfather.

"That's… great." Ash said, trying to muster a smile for his rival's achievement.

"Really! I know he worked hard for it!" Leaf's smile was much more convincing, for all that Ash knew it was actually fake. A few more pleasantries were exchanged before Professor Oak signed off to deal with some fighting Pokemon in the corral.

By that point Bill had returned, looking significantly calmer, and offered to take the two trainees on a tour of the lighthouse. Already amazed at the grandiose-ness of the exterior and entrance hall, they agreed, and were lead around what was apparently the oldest and largest lighthouse in all of Kanto. As they explored the cylindrical castle Bill explained a bit more about himself.

"I'm a Pokemon Researcher or Scientist by trade, but I prefer to think of myself as a Pokemaniac—it's truer in terms of personality, anyway! Regardless, a couple years ago I was tinkering with a couple of pokeballs and created the Pokemon Storage System—that's how you transfer Pokemon between you and your professor or gym leader. I got REALLY famous for that, but I didn't really like it, so I escaped here. It's quite pleasant really. Nice and quiet and I get to do all the research I want." By this point the group had reached the edge of the cliff at the back of the lighthouse and were staring out into the ocean.

"What are you researching now? Besides Kabuto I mean?" Leaf asked.

"Well, right now I'm actually focused on Dragonite. I know they're better recorded than any fossilized Pokemon, but they are still incredibly rare and there have been sightings of a reportedly massive Dragonite—nicknamed 'Ness—off of these cliffs, so I often play a small Dragonite call which asks for friendship in the hopes that she, for it is most likely a she—Dragonite females being larger than Dragonite males—will hear." As he said this he grabbed a portable stereo out of his pocket and pressed play. Out of the speakers came the most mournful noise either of the trainers had ever heard. The group stood silently, gazing out into the vast ocean that was mostly hidden by the haze of fog, listening to the pre-recorded cry, until all of a sudden they heard a returning call directly ahead.

Bill gasped before scrambling closer to the edge of the cliff and holding the recorder out, replaying the Dragonite message. Again, a response could be heard from above the water. Leaf and Ash rushed to get clearer to the ocean too, scrambling to avoid falling over the steep drop-off, and regained their footing just in time to see a shadow coalesce from the fog.

Large and intimidating, the shadow grew in size and detail until at last it wasn't a shadow but a Dragonite, more massive than Leaf or Ash could ever have imagined. It loomed over the small group and cocked its head down at them, considering, as Bill tried extremely hard not to have a panic attack. He reached out, slowly, to touch 'Ness's stomach, but as he did the Pokemon let out a yell and reared back as if struck—and so she was.

Taking up most of one of her legs sat a gaping wound which hadn't been there mere seconds ago. The group jumped back, racing towards the lighthouse as the Dragonite roared in obvious rage and agony, and tried desperately to keep out of the way of its un-aimed Hyper Beams—giant pillars of destructive energy which destroyed everything they came near. As the group neared the back doors to the light house another group scrambled onto the ledge—through the light of a Hyper Beam Ash could make out the Team Rocket Logo and that there were three grunts, but not much else.

In front of him Bill was trying desperately to open the door as he released one Pokemon after another to surround himself and the other trainers. Ash knew Triton was no match for a beast of the sea, particularly one as powerful as this, and returned the Pokemon in the hopes of providing safety to him if not Ash. Leaf apparently had a similar idea and quickly returned all of her Pokemon too. As they did so they watched, terrified, as the Team Rocket Grunts continued to send one barrage of shots after another at the Dragonite. It roared again and spewed out a massive Hyper Beam—the largest yet. Leaf and Ash held their breath as it rushed to the grunts, and behind them they heard Bill finally open the door—a good thing, as many of his Pokemon weren't in good condition—and as they turned to slip through the door they saw out of the corner of their eye the Hyper Beam hit—mere meters from where the grunts were. One, too close to the destructive energy, fell, dropping the weapon he was carrying, opting instead to pull himself forward on his hands. The others dropped their weapons too and raced at full speed to the open door. Bill, though he obviously didn't want to, let them in and his Trevenant, his only un-fainted Pokemon, pulled the other grunt in with the last of its strength.

As Bill closed and locked the door behind him the group, now doubled in size, winced at the sound of 'Ness's continued barrage, but a few minutes later the Dragonite finally stopped attacking and went silent, presumably flying back out to sea.

Now noticeably calmer the trainers and researcher turned to the grunts and Ash had to hold himself back from screaming. There were Jesse and James, unhurt but scared, panting in the corner. Far from them, just inside the door, lay another grunt with black hair. His right leg was torn half off and he was several shades paler than white and gasping in every breath. Bill kneeled over him, working frantically to stop the bleeding, and Leaf and Ash moved to help, preparing the tourniquet and getting Bill whatever he needed.

"What's your name?" Bill asked the injured Rocket. The man couldn't respond. "What's his name?" The researcher shouted over to Jesse and James. They didn't respond either. "His name, now!" He screamed, louder this time.

"I think—I think it was Luthor." James finally responded, shrinking further into the wall.

"It's going to be okay, Luthor, it's going to be okay." Bill murmured to the man. Leaf took over, holding the man's hand and telling him everything was going to be alright. From his position nearer to the amputation, directly assisting Bill in his attempts to keep the grunt from bleeding out, Ash knew that every word they said was a lie.

The teens, researcher, and grunts sat, silent except for the words of comfort, as Bill first worked frantically and then more and more slowly until at last he checked the grunt's pulse one last time before sitting back, defeated. "He's dead." Bill muttered. When Leaf kept on talking to the grunt he grabbed her arm, shaking it to force her to pay attention. "He's dead." She stared at him, then at the grunt, then at Ash, begging anyone to tell her differently, but there was nothing else they could say. The grunt—Luthor—had gone up against a Dragonite and lost. Bill, Leaf, and Ash sat in silence a few minutes longer until Bill abruptly stood and turned to the other Rocket grunts.

"Why were you here?!" Silence. "WHY WERE YOU HERE?!"

This time it was Jesse who spoke up. "We… we found out where you were living and the boss… he wanted your research. We were going to try to break in through the back when you weren't paying attention but then the Dragonite showed up and Luthor… Luthor thought, he thought why not steal _that_? And we knew our Pokemon weren't powerful enough, so…" 

"So you shoot it?!" Bill screamed. "You risk yourself? You risk me? You risk these CHILDREN?!" He screamed, gesturing wildly towards Ash and Leaf. "What gives you any right? What?" The Rocket Grunts shrunk back, terrified of the man's rage, and he turned in disgust. He muttered "go call the police" to no one in particular and grabbed his pokeballs, mounting the stairs up to where he had mentioned he kept Pokemon medicine in the tour that had happened less than an hour ago.

Leaf was obviously in shock, so while he wasn't much better it was Ash who forced himself to his feet and stumbled back to the entrance hall, fingers trembling over the emergency number and voice rattling as he told the operator what had happened. It took him three tries to mount the stairs again and by the time he got into the back room Jesse and James were gone and the back door was unlocked but thankfully closed. Leaf was still pressed between Luthor and the wall, covered in blood, and he didn't think she'd moved since she'd been told the man lying next to her was no more. He carefully pulled her away from the body and opened the door to the adjacent bathroom, grabbing the hand towel and soaking it in water before going back over to Leaf and beginning to clean both of them up.

Emergency services arrived later—how much later he couldn't say—but they brought everyone: firefighters to deal with the Hyper Beam damage, police to investigate what had occurred and take statements, and an ambulance to provide some on sight care to the teens and researcher before loading the corpse up on a gurney and delivering it to the morgue. By the time every car, truck, and motorcycle had left it was well past dusk and the three remaining occupants of the lighthouse were leaning against a wall in the entrance hall, too tired to move a muscle, much less go to the beds that were however many sets of stairs away. They fell asleep lying against one another, worn out and exhausted, and their Pokemon remained in their pokeballs, all within arm's reach of the still terrified survivors.

Miles away, unknown to Ash, Jesse and James did the same, trading a wall for a rock but keeping their pokeballs locked tightly in their hands. A few feet from them the corroded, useless remains of firearms steamed on the ground, utterly destroyed from hours of Acid Sprays and Sludge Bombs.


	17. Surging Back

It was early. Too early, Ash thought, as he squinted against the bright fluorescent bulbs which shone down from the ceiling. While Leaf was still leaning against him asleep, a comfortable weight on his right shoulder, Bill had disappeared sometime in the night. Ash grabbed wildly for his bag, unwilling to open his eyes, and rummaged blindly in it until he found his Pokedex. He turned it on and winced against the unnatural glow, before squinting at the screen.

13:00.

He'd slept for—10? 11? Hours. That made sense. Still too early, though. But now he was awake, so he might as well get up too.

He carefully shifted Leaf until she was lying against the floor before getting up, stretching as he did so. The events of the day before replayed in his mind over and over again, but the fog of sleep was still blocking the worst of it and he was not looking forward to the fuzziness fading. He staggered up the stairs to the backroom, wincing at the obviously bleached section of floor, before staggering up another level to the kitchen.

Bill was sitting at the kitchen table, a mug of sharp smelling coffee in front of him. He nodded towards the coffee machine, where Ash saw the rest of the mug sat. He poured himself a cup. While coffee had never been his favorite thing, he wasn't feeling very picky right now.

"Leaf's still asleep. Your Pokemon okay?" Ash asked as he sat opposite the scientist.

"Mostly full recoveries. Leafeon's going to need some therapy after this, but he'll heal." Bill jerked suddenly. "None of yours or Leaf's got hurt yesterday, right? I hadn't thought to check."

"They're good. We returned them quick enough." Ash sighed, staring at the black liquid in his mug. "You know, I have a gym challenge tomorrow. I don't know if I can do it."

"You should." Bill said, suddenly much more alert and serious. "If you want to postpone it some, fine, but you need to keep on moving with your life. I've… I've dealt with death before. What's most important is that you don't grieve for too long. What happened was horrible, yes, but it is not worth ruining your life over."

"A man died in front of me, Bill. He died in front of me and there was nothing anyone could do."

"Exactly. There was nothing _anyone_ could do. Mourn, pray, yodel. Do whatever you have to do to move on, but do move on." Ash sighed, but nodded. His mother had told him something similar after the Viridian incident, but that had been a decidedly less devastating event. "Can I… can I call my mom? From your phone I mean?" Ash asked.

"Of course." Bill said immediately. Then he gestured upstairs. "I'm going to go check on my Pokemon again. I know they're fine, but…" He drifted off. Ash smiled tiredly and patted the single pokeball on his belt.

"I know."

He trudged back downstairs, past the bleached floor, and into the atrium. Leaf was still asleep against the wall, but she'd have to wake up soon anyway so Ash didn't feel too guilty about making noise. He dialed the familiar Pallet area code, then another six digits, before the phone began to ring. It was picked up before the second ring was finished.

"Ash?!"

"Hi mom."

"Ash, thank Arceus you're okay! I was so worried! All they've been showing on TV today was the whole incident at Vermillion's lighthouse and I knew you just arrived at the city so I was worried you were involved! I'm so glad you're fine!"

"Actually…" Ash drifted off, not wanting to explain, before realizing it was inevitable. At some point one of those TV broadcasts was bound to mention his name, right? "I was involved." He began to explain to his mother everything that had happened in the last 48 hours, before listening to his mother's rants about Oak, Team Rocket, Dragonite, Vermillion, Bill, and life in general. When she finally calmed she asked him how he felt.

"I don't… I don't know. I just… I'm numb, I guess. The EMT last night said I was in shock. He made me drink like a gallon of water. But… I'm not just numb, if that makes sense. I keep on reliving it, reliving the terror and the pain, and…" He broke down, finally, fully, and even as his mother did wonders soothing him over the phone he wished desperately that he could hug her, could revert to being four when he'd climb up on her lap after a nightmare and she rocked him back and forth and hummed a song softly. But no, he was an adult now, legally, and he'd chosen to be a trainer.

Not an 'only one try' trainer, like most of his classmates, who wouldn't be too depressed if they had to go home early, or a 'vacation' trainer, who only participated whenever they had time off of work as a sort of entertainment. He wanted to be the youngest champion, and that meant not stopping. He only had seven years to go—Cynthia, of Sinnoh, had become champion at 22—so he needed to keep pushing.

"I wish you'd come home." His mother sighed into the earpiece.

"I can't." Ash answered. Honestly, he felt like if he returned home he'd never leave again, and he wasn't sure that was a good thing. "This is where I was meant to be."

"Just for a little while?" His mother bargained. "You need to rest."

"Do you know how far Pallet Town is from Vermillion? It'd take me weeks to get there on foot, and still too long if I get someone to drive me." His mother sighed, but didn't respond, and that made him feel even more guilty. "Look, if I challenge Lt. Surge in time then I can get a ticket to the S.S. Anne and I'll rest on that. Sound good?"

"Okay, honey. I just want you to be happy." His mother said.

Ash smiled. "I know. And I'll try to get the Fly HM as soon as possible—then I can visit you whenever."

His mom laughed and agreed, and he hung up, cognizant of Leaf, who had awoken during the call, waiting nearby for her turn.

Ash went back upstairs and made himself some toast and more coffee. When he finished he released Triton and explained to the Seadra what had happened. Triton whimpered and hopped forward, and trainer and Pokemon hugged tightly for a few seconds, taking comfort in the other's support.

About two hours after that both he and Leaf set off together back to Vermillion. It was dinner time by the time they arrived in a much changed city.

Now, like Viridian, a police officer was stationed at the gate. As they walked back to the Pokemon Center they noted that the police presence extended inside the city—there was a cop on nearly every street corner, and new posters lined the backs of benches, advertising for careers in law enforcement. When Ash had left the city almost every other door was open to visitors, but now it was hard to find one that wasn't tightly shut.

They finally arrived at the Pokemon Center, and Ash turned Triton in to a disturbingly sedate Nurse Joy before going back out to pick up the rest of his Pokemon. The door to the Pokemon Fan Club was locked, and Ash had to knock three times before he got an answer.

"Mr. Ketchum! So sorry, It's just… well, you know." Mr. Windsor said, blushing over the forgotten appointment. He led Ash into the back room and handed him his Pokemon, happily telling the trainer the Pokemon's progress. "They all took to it like a Diglet to the ground!"

Ash smiled weakly and thanked the man, before taking his Pokemon back and retracing his steps to the Pokemon Center where he picked up Triton and then went to the side yard. He released his entire team and explained, slowly, haltingly, for what must have been the fifth or sixth time, what had happened the day prior. Their reactions were exactly what he expected, and the group spent the rest of the day in a puddle of limbs, drinking in each other's company and safety.

At dawn the next day Ash was wide awake. He felt oddly refreshed, as if he was back in his old skin, and he smiled, relieved, and sat up. He was not yet 100% okay, but now he felt like he would be and like time had turned back on. He got out of bed and went through his morning ablutions, before going downstairs to grab some breakfast.

There, amongst the throng of Lt. Surge's hopeful future challengers and despondent past ones, sat a familiar head.

"Rick!" Ash shouted. The head of hair looked up, spotting Ash and gesturing him over.

"'Sup, Ash." Rick said, scarfing down his omelet.

"Not much." Ash lied through his teeth—he didn't want to have to explain what happened for a seventh time, especially given how he was finally feeling better. "I'm challenging Surge today."

Rick grinned, glancing around the rest of the room at all of the sad and depressed faces. "Good luck." Then his grin widened. "You know he's my uncle?"

"What?" Ash asked, confused.

"Yup. Mom's older bro. 'S why I'm here, actually. I just evolved my Pikachu, Sergeant, into a Raichu, and Uncle Fumi's going to give me some one-on-one tips and training. Anyway, I could totally help you out, if you want?"

"I mean, yeah, definitely, but why?" Ash asked, confused about his good fortune. Rick's face darkened.

"Gary used to be my best friend, yeah?" He asked.

"Yeah." Ash agreed. They had a pretty small graduating class, so it wasn't exactly a secret.

"Well now he's a prick." Rick said bluntly. "And I want his ego deflated a notch or a dozen. And I think you're the one who can do it."

Ash raised his eyebrows, surprised by Rick's certainty. "Why me?"

"Who else? Dave, Rachel, and Patty failed on their first try on the exam and Danny didn't even try at all. Moon's family is moving to Alola and she's going with them, so she's out. No one even knows how Joey passed, so so is he. Leaf's too kind, Ben, Stacey, Anthony, and I don't want to be full time trainers, and Doug and Charlie are, simply put, not good enough. Actually, that could be said for the lot of us, except maybe for Leaf. Face it Ash, if anyone's going to take Gary down a peg, it's you."

Ash sighed, but nodded. Then he grinned. "So… how are you going to help, anyway?"

In the next hour Ash learned everything Rick thought he needed to know to take on Surge. The first thing Rick explained was that the battle would be hard—really hard. Because of the prizes the League had given the lieutenant permission to be much more difficult than normal. While he still used the same teams, now he worked harder to beat the trainers rather than allowing them to only show him competency to beat him. Until the promotion was over it wasn't enough to try to get a badge—if you wanted one you had to be ready to push yourself and your Pokemon to exhaustion, and then a bit further.

After that Rick turned to how to beat Surge—apparently, for all that he was an electric type specialist, he generally used slower Pokemon. He did this because everyone expected his Pokemon to be faster than lightning, so they focused more on using moves to block him rather than dodging. This wore out Pokemon faster, giving him a leg up. Rick also explained that Lt. Surge was currently rotating through what type of battle he did for each fight so that the trainers were even less prepared, a sort of mind game, but because of the desire to save time had been doing more and more double and triple battles (with the exception of a trainer's 1st and 6th badge and any badge over the 8th all gym battles had to have at least two Pokemon per side). Finally, again because of the tickets, most of Lt. Surge's recent battlers were after their first gym badge, so Rick guessed that his uncle was probably not on the lookout for move combos or trainer-made moves.

By the time it was 15:30 and time to go to the gym Ash knew that it would be a massively difficult battle, but he also knew he'd win it. The only question was by what margin.

The Gym Assistants—this time there were two—were ridiculously easy to beat, and it was obvious that they were only there to stop the worst from getting by—if you had even a modicum of talent then you would be allowed your shot at Surge.

Ten minutes after entering Ash stood before the Challenge Arena. Lt. Surge was still laughing the last trainer of the stage, and there were stands on all sides of the floor, filled from top to bottom with Lt. Surge's fans—and they were all his fans. In the last battle they'd cheered with every move of Surge's Raichu and jeered with every order given by the challenger.

"Psychological warfare." Ash murmured, remembering the mind games Rick talked about.

"You ready, baby?" Surge shouted across the floor. The crowd roared behind him.

"You bet." Ash shouted back, grinning as he climbed up onto the stage.

"Fine. Third Badge? Good. This'll be a double battle. You should know all the rules by now, so I won't bother going over them. Let's get this done as quick as possible—maybe the trainer after you will actually be worth the effort of this charade."

Ash grit his teeth but didn't reply, choosing instead to release his Pokemon—Tyche and Bacchus. Across the field Lt. Surge laughed.

"Where's your ground type, baby? Oh well, I suppose they'll do. All they have to do is faint, after all. And now here are mine!" He threw out two Pokemon: a Raichu and a Magnezone. Ash gulped.

The next few minutes passed in a blur. All Ash could remember was the colors of the attacks—beams of yellow, pink, green, brown, grey, and purple all flying between the speeding blurs of the fighting Pokemon. While Rick had said that his uncle didn't specifically train for speed, he forgot to mention that the battle would be fast paced anyway. He'd never had a battle where it was so difficult to keep track of what was going on before—it was all he could do to be ready to recall either of his Pokemon should something bad happen.

Actually, all he could do was stand to the side. This was not a battle of orders—both Ash and Lt. Surge were completely silent—this was a battle of training. It hadn't started out that way. In the beginning both Ash and Surge were choreographing every move, but the second the Gym Leader realized that Ash was actually _good_ the kid gloves came off and suddenly all of the Pokemon had to rely fully on past experience and training, not their trainer's strategy.

That had been two or three minutes ago. The only reason that he'd survived that long was because of Tyche's Heal Pulse. Now Ash's eyes darted to the left just in time to see Bacchus be hit head on by a Giga Impact from the Raichu. His eyes darted to the right to see Tyche attempting to use her Psychic move to redirect Magnet Bomb. He'd only just been able to focus on her when just behind the Gardevoir he could see Raichu flying back from what looked like a Master Punch hit by Bacchus. He turned to look at Bacchus but as he did he heard a yell. He whipped his head around, back to Tyche.

She was down.

The Magnezone's steel attacks were too much and she hadn't been able to redirect and teleport enough. She was about to faint and there was nothing Ash could do. Except…

"Memento, Tyche! Both of them!" A flash of dark purple emanated from her, straight at her opponents, before she gave into the fatigue and fainted. He quickly returned her, grinning as the electric types' decreased power became obvious, and watched as Bacchus threw a Master Punch at Magnezone. While the electric/steel type had been able to take out the powerhouse that was Tyche, it hadn't been without cost, so the super effective attack was just enough to put it out of commission too.

"Nice one! But the battle's not over yet!" Lt. Surge yelled from across the field.

"We'll see about that!" Ash screamed back. "Bacchus, Mud Slap!" The grass/fighting type reared at the pure electric type and unleashed a mass of mud straight at its head. The electric type tried to dodge but its early evolution (Rick had mentioned that his uncle never bothered to raise Pikachu for too long before evolving them) cost it, and the attack hit straight on. Without even pausing Bacchus released another Mud Slap and then another. While Raichu was able to dodge some he couldn't dodge them all, and mere seconds after its teammate fainted it followed.

"YES!" Ash screamed. This was exactly what he needed to feel whole again—to feel himself again. He quickly thanked and returned Bacchus before making his way across the field. Above him the crowd was cheering—he was right; it had been psychological warfare and now that the match was over they didn't mind showing their support.

"You did a good job." The lieutenant grudgingly admitted. "Got your Pokemon trained up real good. Guess you might make it to a conference soon, where I'll kick your ass with my real team."

Ash grinned back at him, undaunted. "Looking forward to you trying."

They shook hands, and then Lt. Surge turned around, fishing on the desk behind him for something. The desk was full of Pokemon—there were stacks two or three high of special containers to hold a single Pokemon team with giant numbers on the sides—"2", "1", "6", "8", and everything in between. There was also a gun, thankfully with its clip out, a computer, a radio, and a phone. Underneath all of that was stacks and stacks of paper. Finally Surge found what he was looking for and turned back to Ash.

"And here you are—a ticket to the S.S. Anne, 3rd Class. Have fun!" Surge laughed, and rather cruelly, as if he knew something Ash didn't, but when Ash cocked an eyebrow at him he refused to elaborate. Still high off of getting his third badge, Ash didn't push it, and he was soon sprinting back to the Pokemon Center—he had a new Pokemon to meet!


	18. Rest & Recuperation

Ash and his Pokemon sat comfortably in a half circle at the edge of Vermillion City. He held a red and white Pokeball in his hands, but unlike the identical ones which lined his belt he'd only gotten this one that day. He took a deep breath, glancing about one last time at his equally eager team, and pressed the release button. There was the standard near blinding flash of light and then the Pokemon he'd been waiting for appeared: Hitmonlee. Eacus, despite his timid nature, immediately bounded over to the fighting type, obviously remembering him from their time as Damian's Pokemon. The rest of the Pokemon watched, willing to let the dark/fire type take the lead.

The Hitmonlee, for his part, seemed equally happy to see the Houndour, for all that he wasn't obvious about it. He sat cross legged across from Ash and held the puppy in his arms as he looked at the rest of the group.

"Hello again, Hitmonlee." Ash grinned. "Guess who your new partner is?" The Hitmonlee immediately stilled, staring at Ash with a completely blank face until Ash's smile widened and he nodded. Immediately the fighting type leapt up and jump kicked the air, somehow without jostling the puppy in his arms. It looked so obviously antithetical to his nature—Ash would bet anything on the Hitmonlee being serious natured—that the teen felt sad once again. While he knew he was a good trainer, to be that happy about being his Pokemon did not speak well of the Pokemon's previous experiences. Ash set his jaw. He would ensure that Hitmonlee never had to go through anything like that again.

"Okay, Hitmonlee. The next thing I want to do is look you over with the Pokedex. Is that okay?" The Hitmonlee nodded.

"This Pokemon is a Hitmonlee, or the Kicking Pokemon, and it is one of three potential evolutions of Tyrogue. Its legs are some of the strongest and most flexible in the world, and it dominated the game of Poke-football due to that until restrictions were placed on its use. It is built for attack more than defense. This Hitmonlee, like all others of its species, is male, and has the ability 'reckless' as well as the hidden ability 'unburden'. It knows the moves Fake Out, Helping Hand, Tackle, Rain Dance, Foresight, Double Kick, Frustration, and Bulk Up, and the egg move Bullet Punch."

Wow. That's… that's a lot. You're an awesome Pokemon, Hitmonlee. Okay, so the next thing I want you to do is to show me all your moves."

As Hitmonlee began to run through the gamut Ash was amazed at the utter skill Hitmonlee showed in each of his moves. He went through them flawlessly, reminding Ash of some sort of dangerous dance, culminating in the literal Rain Dance. By the end of it Ash had a serious problem—he didn't know how to improve on any of Hitmonlee's moves, and he didn't want to use a TM on the fighting type just yet. So he asked Hitmonlee to help out Eacus.

Eacus was still by far the weakest of the team, but he was improving fast. He had finally perfected all of his old moves to a level Ash was pleased with and was way more vocal than he used to be—Ash was actually reasonably sure the puppy had learned Roar on its own, but had no one weak enough to use it against. Currently the dark-fire type was learning Focus Energy, so Ash asked Hitmonlee if the fighting type could learn it with Eacus. He felt that it would improve Eacus's concentration to have a serious Pokemon working alongside him.

Finished with that Ash turned to the rest of his team and clapped his hands. "Considering there's still two days until the S.S. Anne sets off it's training for the rest of you too." Ash turned to Tyche first. "When you're finished learning Psychic and Mind Reader come to me and I'll show you a video of a Swoobat using Imprison. That's the next move that I want you to work on—it makes it so your opponent can't use any move you—or your teammates—use on it, which is useful considering your popularity." Tyche nodded and headed towards a rock to begin practicing, so Ash turned to Bacchus.

"I want you to practice jumping—there's a move, Sky Uppercut, that you're supposed to be able to learn, but it apparently takes forever to master so I want you to get started now." Bacchus agreed amicably and hopped away, getting higher and higher with each jump.

Next on the list was Boreas. "Okay, Boreas, I know that you finally figured out Take Down, so what I want you to do now is try to combine it with another move like Aerial Ace or Steel Wing. Once I'm done handing out assignments I'll come work with you on it, okay?" Boreas nodded and settled down to wait as Ash turned to Triton.

"Alright, Triton, considering Hitmonlee's Rain Dance made it rain I want you to try using your swift swim in the rain and see how fast you can go." Seadra cooed and nodded, taking off.

"And last but not least, Zeus." The electric type yipped at Ash, ready for orders. "I'm glad that you finally perfected Ice Fang, but now you need to work on Bite and Roar. You really should've had at least one of them down by now." The Luxio yipped again, before dashing towards a rock to practice. Ash knew that it wouldn't take long for Zeus to pick the moves up—considering Eacus already knew Roar Zeus would work overtime to stay in front of his much younger counterpart.

Finished, Ash turned back to Boreas, and they got to work.

The next day, only a few minutes before Ash was going to break for lunch, he heard loud cracks coming from where Hitmonlee and Eacus were supposed to be. Leaving Boreas to keep on combining Aerial Ace and Take Down, Ash sprinted over to the nearby clearing.

Before he even entered the lea he found Eacus, just at the edge of the trees, watching what was going on inside in amazement. Ash scooped up the puppy, who was beginning to get to big to be carried, and took the last few steps to get a good view. There, in the clearing, Hitmonlee and Bacchus were going all out against one another.

The problem had started the night before. As it turned out, personality wise, serious and jolly Pokemon did not seem to get along. Bacchus had been hopping around the table, trying to get someone to dance with him, when he'd, for reasons beyond Ash's understanding, decided to target Hitmonlee. The fighting type had refused, but Bacchus had continued to pester him for the rest of the evening, even after Ash repeatedly told him to stop. This had ended with the grass/fighting type in his pokeball for the night and Hitmonlee even more closed off than he was before.

And now the two were fighting.

Ash considered trying to stop them or, more reasonably, getting Boreas to, but he kind of felt like this would happen at some point anyway, so he decided to allow it to play out and hope both were hurt sufficiently that they stopped fighting but not so much that there was any serious damage.

Eacus seemed entertained, anyway.

The two, Ash noticed, were not actually using any 'moves'. They were punching and kicking, sure, but they weren't using any innate energy: just the raw power of their muscles. It was almost as if they didn't want to hurt each other, but Ash knew better. While that certainly played a part, they also wanted to show they did not need the advantage of using a move to beat the other. In the past while Ash was challenging other Pokemon trainers he and Bacchus would occasionally come across a fighting Pokemon which Bacchus felt was a worthy challenger to him physically. When that happened the two would stop using their learned moves and the two would duke it out as two humans might, both totally oblivious to their trainer's calls.

That was what was happening here.

For whatever reason, both Bacchus and Hitmonlee felt that the battle they were currently engaged in was a test of pride, a test of worth.

It was actually rather hypnotic to watch—the talent of the two was obvious, but they obviously also had different tactics. Whereas Hitmonlee relied primarily on well executed and high powered moves, Bacchus was definitely a believer that quantity had a quality of its own.

As the two continued to crash against one another the rest of the team slowly started to coalesce around them. It took over an hour for the fight to come to an end, and by that time the entire team was sitting at the edge of the lea, eating lunch. Hitmonlee and Bacchus panted in the middle of the clearing, each daring the other to try to land a final blow.

"Enough!" Ash shouted. Both turned to him at once. They looked dead on their feet. "I allowed you two to duke it out in the hopes that you'd realize why you should respect one another, but apparently that didn't work. Do you feel better now? Now that you've beat yourselves half to death? Was it worth it?" Both Pokemon looked down, unwilling to meet his eyes.

Ash sighed and rubbed his eyes. "I understand that you two don't get along, but Bacchus, you need to realize that Hitmonlee isn't the playful type, and Hitmonlee, you have to realize that Bacchus only wants to have fun." He gestured down at Eacus, who was watching the goings on with interest. "Is this the example you want to give? Is it?" Bacchus broke first.

He hopped over to the little dark/fire type and bent down to his level, murmuring things in the language of Breloom that Ash couldn't hope to understand. Eacus yipped back, before racing over to Hitmonlee, who picked Eacus up and hugged him as an apology. Eacus snuggled in briefly, before hopping out of Hitmonlee's arms and circling around to the fighting type's back and trying to headbutt the much larger Pokemon forward.

Hitmonlee went along amicably, and he and Bacchus awkwardly hugged under the watchful eyes of Ash and Eacus.

Finished, the entire group made their way back to lunch and started in on the feast Ash had planned well before his two fighting Pokemon had decided to live up to their typing.

After lunch rather than going straight back to training Ash felt it was important for his team to get to know each other better, so they all sat in a circle and each got a certain amount of time to try to explain what made them happy or annoyed through an elaborate game of charades, with Ash frequently calling out possible meanings to help narrow in on what the Pokemon was trying to say.

Tyche, who went first, was apparently quite annoyed that she was still the only female on the team and wanted Ash to rectify that immediately. She was happy she was growing stronger and wanted to become the strongest Pokemon on the team. It apparently irked her that none of the boys had considered her in contention before, so she wanted to prove exactly how powerful she was. Ash promised to give her the chance in the future and began thinking of ways to show her teammates her sheer strength.

After Tyche Bacchus volunteered. What he was most upset about, currently, was the lack of dancing taking place. He remembered the small dance parties that the group used to do, and was annoyed that they'd begun to decline in frequency. Ash, in turn, promised to make sure that Bacchus had plenty of times to show his dance moves alongside any teammates who wanted to participate. Bacchus also took his time to apologize, again, to Hitmonlee, and to explain how much he loved the rush of fighting (he did this by hugging the kicking Pokemon again and then miming pumping before jumping up and down. Hitmonlee remained expressionless.) Ash made a note (he had, at some point, gotten out a pen and some paper) to consider the possibility of regular boxing matches in the future—Hitmonlee, Zeus, and, surprisingly, Tyche also seemed rather interested in the idea when he voiced it.

It was Boreas's turn next, but as it turned out compared to Bacchus and Tyche he was pants at charades. After an elaborate one hour effort, all that he'd managed to get across was that he wanted to learn the HM Fly and that he thought he was great. Ash made a note to look into how to understand bird Pokemon and another to keep an eye on Boreas's arrogance—the Staraptor had spent thirty minutes trying to explain to the group exactly how awesome he was.

It was Triton's turn after that, and the very first thing he 'said' was how thankful he was that the team had carried him for so long. It turned out that he loved the looks of trees and grass and mountains and everything else he'd managed to see that he couldn't have otherwise. Triton did pantomime, though, that he'd like to attempt a swim in the ocean, which was well known for its powerful predators (beaches were lined with ultra-strong nets to keep them away from swimmers and their Pokemon alike). Ash made a note of it, but honestly doubted that Triton was ready yet to go a few rounds with a wild Staryu or Tentacruel.

After that Eacus went. Truthfully the rest of the team understood next to nothing of what the little puppy tried to get across, but when he finally finished yipping and jumping around maniacally and raced around the group, licking everyone's faces, the meaning was obvious.

Zeus jumped in after that. While the electric type was rather new to the group he still managed to communicate quite well. He first apologized for accidently zapping everyone when the Squirtle had attacked (via nuzzles), then thanked Ash for making him stronger. He wanted to become as strong as his namesake, Zapdos, and wasn't going to let anybody stand in his way.

Hitmonlee was next to last. The fighting type looked incredibly awkward as he twisted his body this way and that, trying to explain himself so that the others could understand. It was very obvious he was thankful for Ash's rescue of him, but other than Hitmonlee just emphasized his love of both fighting and meditation. After thanking Hitmonlee for his turn, Ash asked the fighting type if he wanted a name. While Hitmonlee initially looked as if he'd say no, after a brief hesitation he changed his mind and nodded.

Then came almost an hour of name guessing: Ares, Mars, Jupiter, Bellona, Alke, Dionysus, Vulcan, Minerva... While Hitmonlee was firm in his desire for a name, he didn't seem to be particularly drawn to any suggested. Eventually Ash had to shift away from lists of ancient gods and goddesses to other words from that time. "Okay, Alexander's a no… how about Sparta?" Hitmonlee paused, and nodded. Ash laughed in relief (it was a long hour) and explained the origin of the word. "It was an ancient City-State which encompassed about half of what is now Saffron City and the surrounding area. Athens covered the other half and the rest of the surrounding area. Sparta was known for being incredibly martially focused, and were extremely difficult to defeat on the battlefield." Sparta, pleased with his name, nodded agreeably.

Just then Ash's watch buzzed—it was time to prepare for bed. "Alright guys, let's get everything cleaned up and ready to go! We're on the S.S. Anne tomorrow!" His Pokemon cheered in response, and the group was soon all packed up and shortly after in their pokeballs as Ash headed back to the center.

As they all packed into the room he'd gotten Ash grinned. He hadn't noticed it before, but compared to the first Pokemon Center rooms he'd lodged in, this one was notably larger in size, able to fit all his Pokemon comfortably with room leftover. His team was growing quite well, and honestly he wasn't sure the 15 year old of almost two months ago would have believed the progress he'd already made.


	19. The SS Anne

Compared to other ships docked in Vermillion Harbor the S.S. Anne was monstrous. The largest luxury cruise liner to date, this would be its debut run and it had chosen quite a place to start in.

While Vermillion Harbor was one of the most popular shipping, cruising, and boating destinations in Kanto it had become an odd sort of rule that no ship ever started their maiden voyage from the harbor. It was, after all, said to be cursed.

The first noted case, and cause, of the curse being mentioned all the way back when Vermillion was called Corinth. As the story went, after the ruler Agamemnon was killed by his wife and her lover, his son Orestes killed the two lovers in retribution. However, that meant that he had committed matricide, and the ancient Latias and Latios population, who defended family above all, cursed the city to never have a good beginning, which, considering even then Corinth was a premier shipping town, was taken to mean at sea.

Honestly Ash was 99% sure that was untrue, particularly because there actually had been a number of successful maiden voyages which had begun at Vermillion, however even he would admit that a suspicious proportion of the maiden voyages did seem to end badly in some way.

In any case, when the S.S. Anne was finally built, the company which had built it, Sakaki, decided that the absolute best way to increase publicity for the event was to have the ship leave from the 'cursed' harbor. As the radio promotion said: "This ship is so wonderful, so grand, that it may as well be the queen of the ocean, and long lives the queen!".

All that mattered to Ash was that that part of Sakaki's promotion of the voyage was the partnership with Lt. Surge to bring more traffic to his gym, and that meant that Ash would be allowed on a ship which he otherwise wouldn't be able to afford by a longshot.

All he had to do was stand in line, behind all the other trainers who had earned or bought tickets, for five hours.

When he finally got to the front of the line it was a relatively quick process getting the rest of the way in. His ticket was taken, double checked against their database, given approval via stamp, and handed back along with a card with "710" printed on it.

"Alright," the man who was checking the tickets began, "the way it works is backwards. Top of the ship is the 100s, next level down is the 200s, et cetera. You're on the bottom level. Yeah, the first couple are really tall. Anyway, because you're third class you'll be sharing your room—710— with 10 other trainers. You're entitled to three buffet meals a day—just swipe the card at the front of the buffet—and you're allowed into the public areas as well as the competitions that take place there. Nothing else is free and if you want to take part in something else it'll cost ya. Have a nice trip."

As quickly as he'd been rushed into the small tent that stood at the front of the line he was rushed out and onto the ship. For all that Ash had understood its size from its outside, the inside somehow seemed even more massive. After getting on the ship he and all the other passengers had been herded into the center of the ship—a massive however many story open area with shops surrounding it that seemed like it could easily fit the entirety of Pallet Town.

The ceiling of the mall was completely filled with a massive pointed skylight— _not_ one of Ash's favorite architectural features—and the tallest reaches of the walls were covered in three rows of balconies, ostensibly for the 1st class passengers to gaze down from.

The stores which lined the floor of the open space varied in every conceivable way: there were stores for people and Pokemon, there were stores for clothing and electronics, there were stores for children and stores for couples, there were restaurants of all different styles and prices, and there were at least five ice cream shops. S.S. Anne employees, clad in buttoned up black shirts and pants and silver name tags pinned on their left breasts, ran to and fro, doing all they could to make the trip enjoyable for everyone.

All in all it was one of the most amazing locations Ash had ever had the pleasure of being in. However, before wandering around he decided to drop his stuff of in his room.

Compared to the mall, his room was… disappointing. Opposite the door five bunk beds stood equidistant from each other, just barely allowing four portholes to shine through the spaces between them. Opposite them five rather large lockers sat on either side of the entrance. The right wall held a small kitchen, with a single fridge and wall and floor cabinets spanning the rest of the length, themselves with two microwaves and two sinks on the countertops.

The left wall held only a door, ostensibly to the bathroom.

Of the rest of the occupants, seven had already arrived by the time Ash made it in. All were battling. One, in the middle of two different battles with two different pokemon, leaned towards Ash as he looked around.

"Right, so because basically every third class passenger on this thing is a trainer, the unofficial rule is that you always have to be battling. I mean, you could always, like, go to the mall or something, but while you're in the cabin you better be in a fight."

"How about sleep?" Ash asked, looking around.

"I don't know—just, like, set up a watch or something. Like you would in the wild or whatever. We'll probably stop fighting at some point anyway" The youngster said, before turning back to his battles.

Ash nodded and grabbed one of the last available bunks before releasing his first Pokemon—Tyche. She had, after all, mentioned wanting to battle more, and he was up for the challenge as well.

Immediately she was attacked by a Ludicolo using water gun. She lashed back promptly with a Psychic before Ash could even open his mouth, and Ash grinned. This was going to be fun.

The rest of the night, and the morning, passed in similar fashion, with all of the teens in the room constantly pitting their Pokemon against one another (they had all also agreed not to worry about the loss money, so that meant that except for quick runs to the Pokemon Center there was basically non-stop fighting.) Given that the room was filled with half of the boys who had managed to beat Surge for their third badge, they were relatively equal in level, so really it came down to technique. And the techniques used were fascinating—given the cramped quarters and the need to avoid property damage everyone worked overtime to twist their Pokemon's typical moves into something more fit for the environment, which led to very unique discoveries—Bacchus's Master Punch, for example, could be combined with Mega Drain to literally force the opposing Pokemon to stay close by and not be slammed back from the shock of the punch (that discovery did, unfortunately, come only after Bacchus had already knocked a Nidorino into a Hitmontop that was fighting nearby). Thankfully every piece of furniture and wall in the dormitories seemed indestructible, so it was more the lack of space that factored into their fighting.

By the time it was 10:00 (give him a break, no one even thought to go to bed until 2:00!) Ash was more than ready to go to the mall. He actually wanted to spend some time in the lap of luxury, considering that was what he had fought for. He did bring all his belongings with him though—while his roommates seemed nice enough, he'd rather not have his entire food supply go up in smoke because of a miss-aimed flamethrower when he wasn't around to defend it.

At the mall Ash began wandering around, visiting each of the shops in turn to find out if he could afford anything. But the TMs he actually could afford were not particularly useful, and the rest of the goods sold were either useless or significantly more marked up than they ever would be on land.

Eventually Ash gave up shopping as a loss and started making his rounds in the center of the mall.

The place was _packed_. Which, as it turned out, worked in Ash's favor.

Thanks to the super rich 1st class passengers, Ash managed to catch glimpses of different members of the Eevee line, various Porygon, a Kangaskhan, and even a Larvesta. He was in awe of all the different species displayed—this would likely be his only chance, at least until he got to the Indigo League, to see some of these extremely rare Pokemon.

The influx of Pokemon from all regions (the glamour of the cruise had enticed people from as far away as Alola or Unova) had also led to another phenomenon: trading.

Trainers were constantly shouting out what they had: "Powerful Hitmontop!" "Fully evolved Darmanitan!" "Klefki!" "Alolan Marowak! That's right, Alolan Marowak here!" and Ash was honestly drawn several times to a lot of the traders: the idea of owning a Darmanitan or Alolan Marowak was a very enticing proposition. However at the end of the day there wasn't a single Pokemon in his party that he was willing to give up, so instead he made sure to keep an eye on some of the traders so that he could catch of glimpse of the Pokemon after they were released to be shown off.

The best part, though, were the battles: there were multiple platforms set up all around the mall with the maximum badge number emblazoned on a giant sign above them, and a sort of miniature tournament was going on on each: two trainers would go up and duke it out, and then whoever won had to stay on and continue battling until they lost. Whoever beat them stayed on and the cycle continued.

Ash himself immediately went over to the '3 Badges' arena, but quickly found that if he actually participated he'd be stuck on the platform for a while. A lot of the battling trainers had not gotten all three of their badges from Certified Gyms as Ash had, but instead obtained them from Aspiring Gyms, which, while technically a legal way of getting admittance into the league, were generally considered to be of a lesser quality (one of the main issues was that while the aspiring gym leaders may have had a team or three for a first or second badge, there was no guarantee that they had one for an eighth badge and even if they did there was almost no way they had two, so they wouldn't be able to routinely fight that many trainers. They were also allowed to be more…flexible in how they determined a winner.) After watching only a few decidedly lower level battles Ash moved on to the '4 Badges' arena.

The man currently holding the platform was a gentleman with a really overpowered Raticate, as well as an Eevee, Zangoose, Herdier, Meowth, and a Porygon (a battler's total team was displayed on a screen behind them.) By the time Ash got near the front of the line the gentleman was down to his Raticate. Oddly enough, despite there being many trainers ahead of him, the ref called Ash to the stage for the next battle. Considering he'd already registered, Ash knew it was because the ref was aware he only had three badges—the other man's Pokemon was on his last leg and it looked like the ref must have wanted a close match.

Once he was on stage the ref, dressed in the black and white stripes which denoted the position the world over, spoke. "One on one match! Begin."

Ash fingered his Pokeballs for a few seconds before sending out Zeus. While he had no doubt that the Raticate was stronger, it had just taken several beatings while Zeus was fresh. The toughness of the battle would be good for the electric type.

Both trainers called out at the same time "Hyper Fang!" "Ice Fang." And the battle began.

The battle was one of health vs power. While in nearly every other circumstance the Raticate would have won hands down, because it had already been put through the ringer two or three times Zeus actually had a change of winning. Ash made sure to mostly order dodging for the well-rested Pokemon, only attacking when the Raticate had to take a break from the exertion, and as the two continued to duke it out the Raticate began faltering. Immediately afterwards Zeus went entirely on the offensive. He bit, sparked, and slapped his way to victory, ignoring defense entirely as the end became imminent.

"Stop!"

Ash called off Zeus, turning to the ref to see what the problem was.

"This match has been declared a draw. Please remove your Pokemon from the stage." Confused, Ash recalled his Luxio, before climbing off the stage and back into the surrounding crowd. As he watched the gentleman nodded amiably to the ref, before recalling his own Pokemon. The ref turned to the crowd and announced: "Sir Damian is still undefeated and will return in one hour for those who wish to challenge him." _What?_

Another Damian? Come on! He'd just put the last one out of his mind! He turned and glared at the man, who was laughing amicably with a number of other 1st class passengers near the Pokemon Center built at the side of the mall.

Really? Really? He was going to win! Just as Ash was debating the merits of storming over there and screaming at the man (costs: many. Benefits? He wanted to.) every light in the mall flickered. From every balcony which lined the mall a person stepped out, carrying what looked like a gun. Each shop's metal gates crashed down from the ceiling of the entrance, and Ash distantly heard a man yell—considering how fast they had dropped, it wasn't a surprise someone had gotten caught under one.

Over the intercom a voice began to speak. It was soft and almost soothing, but you could practically hear the smirk gracing the face of the speaker. Actually, the voice seemed rather familiar, but Ash couldn't for the life of him place it.

"Hello passengers of the S.S. Anne! My, my, this is a surprise, isn't it? I bet you thought you were in for a nice calm journey through Kanto waters as you battled and traded and shopped to your hearts' content. Well, I'm sorry to tell you that that is simply not happening. Here's what is going to happen though. You see those nice 'servers' in their nice black shirts and pants? They would be ever so pleased if you gave them your pokeballs. In fact, if you do they won't even shoot you! Wouldn't that be nice? Be good little girls and boys now, okay?"

All around the mall the employees that had been overlooked by the majority of the passengers up until then grinned. There was a pause, as every passenger froze for a few seconds, thinking desperately about what to do, and then one of the grunts on the deck let a shot out into the air. Immediately after the first passenger reached into his pocket and pulled out a pokeball, handing it over. That began a flood of passengers practically throwing their pokeballs to the men and women in black, but as Ash watched he noticed that there were also a huge chunk of trainers who weren't. It took a few seconds, but he figured out why: they were all third class.

Third class passengers, like him, could not afford to give up their Pokemon. They spent weeks and months and maybe even years working to get them at the level they were at now, and regardless of that they loved their Pokemon. The same could not be said for many of the upper-class passengers, who had just spent the morning trading most of the Pokemon they'd begun the voyage with away.

As Ash looked around he made eye contact with another 3rd-classer, then another. They would _not_ give up their Pokemon. Almost as one every 3rd class trainer, and a good number of 1st and 2nd class trainers too, grabbed a pokeball. Almost as one every single passenger who chose to fight released their first Pokemon.

And almost as one every Team Rocket member—for who else could it be?—turned and fled. They frantically climbed over the metal bars in the store gates, clambering onto one balcony only to reach for the next, as Gardevoir and Sandslash and Ninjask attacked them with all their might. Ash kept on releasing Pokemon after Pokemon, shouting at them to attack, and around him almost every third trainer on the floor did too. Just as Ash began to feel as if they might get the stolen Pokemon back, as if justice might be served, just as the optimism in the room began to swell, the skylight crashed, sending glass shards thundering to the ground. Ash ducked, covering his face and neck against the onslaught, and when he looked up after glass stopped slicing across his back he was just in time to see multiple helicopters hovering over the mall, each with a giant R emblazoned on the side, all helping the so-called 'employees' to get out. Even as they did Ash heard one blast, and then another. Someone, Ash didn't know who, swore out loud and shouted "They're shooting the ship! It's going to go down!"

Utter pandemonium. Ash barely had time to recall his own Pokemon as the crowd crushed him on all sides, everyone aiming for the elevators or stairs to get them up to the top level where the lifeboats were.

Ash tried desperately to press through the crowds and get to the stairs, but just as he caught sight of the staircase something hit him—hard—in the back of the head and he fell forward, dimly surprised that he was moving at all. He hit the floor, or at least some other passenger's legs, and closed his eyes. As the crowd flowed around him, each concerned with their own safety, he laid on the ground, unconscious.

It took two hours for the ship to sink. In that time lifeboats of every shape and size sped out in every direction, fleeing from the monstrosity. For a while it looked as if no one would think of the young teen so many had easily bypassed in fleeing. But just as any hope of his survival began to fade, someone looked back at the ship.

"Ash!"


	20. Rocking Red Rollercoaster

His hacking woke him up. He didn't know what had happened, but one moment there was nothing and the next water was shooting up his throat and out of his mouth and his esophagus felt like it was on fire and his head pounded in time with the waves which smashed against his right side and he felt like someone had dumped him on a terrible attempt at an amusement ride with no warning. Ash groaned and tipped to his left, away from the waves and hopefully off the ride.

"Careful!" A voice—female—said. Hands appeared from nowhere and carefully sat him back up. "Shimmer's trying her best, but she just evolved—she can't even fly yet!"

"Shimmer?" Ash asked. He forced his eyes open. They burned, but he could still, however blurrily, see through them. A few blinks later and he managed to make out Leaf sitting in front of him, clinging onto the same giant red roller coaster as he was. Oh. Shimmer. Her shiny Magikarp.

"What… what happened?" Ash mumbled, sitting up. His stomach rolled, and he groaned, falling into Leaf. She grabbed him and set him against Shimmer's… neck?... again.

"After… after the attack everyone fled. We were all on lifeboats when I remembered that you… that you had challenged Surge too. And I knew you had to have won, so you had to be on the… on the ship." She stopped speaking when Ash keeled to the side of Shimmer again, this time to empty his stomach. Once he was finished she passed him a water bottle and some saltines from her backpack—thankfully, both his and hers were strapped onto her back—before she started again.

"The… some of the passengers called the police, and they asked us to make sure that everyone we knew had gotten out of the ship. People were being checked off one by one, but I hadn't heard your name, so I… I asked, and they, they said that you hadn't been reported in yet. And… and I got worried, you know, because you mentioned how frequently you got into trouble, and so… I just…" she shrugged, and looked away. Ash followed her line of sight, and frowned when he realized that neither the ship nor any life boat were in sight. "I grabbed Shimmer. I thought about Chuck, my Bibarel, but he's only good in rivers—the force of the ocean currents would be too much for him. So instead I released Shimmer—because even the youngest Magikarp can swim in the ocean— and asked her to see if she could find you and she… she evolved. Like, immediately." She went on to describe how Shimmer had dove into the sinking wreck, and how while waiting for her to come back the rest of the occupants of her lifeboat decided they had to leave. She refused, so they left her with a small raft that had been stowed in the lifeboat while they motored to safety. It hadn't been a particularly nice thing to do, but she understood why they had done it.

Only a few minutes later Shimmer had come back with Ash held lightly in her mouth, but by then it was too late. The lifeboat was already almost out of sight, and Leaf had had to allow it to fade from view completely while she administered CPR and saved Ash's life. As she did so something had poked a hole in the bottom of the raft, so now both she and Ash were on Shimmer, the only mildly safe location left, regardless of nausea.

"So… where are we going then?" Ash asked, looking around again. As far as he could see there was no land in sight, so Shimmer's unstopping undulation towards a single direction seemed a bit arbitrary. Leaf, though, waved a (thankfully laminated) map and compass at him.

"I don't really know exactly where we are, but I had some idea of where the S. S. Anne was just before it sank. I'm pretty sure that the Sevii Islands are fairly close, though, so that's where we're going… I think."

Ash laughed outright at that, a hacking cough of sorts, and the two fell silent, trying to keep their queasiness down and not think of their situation too much. There wasn't much else to do, however—they were in an empty expanse of ocean, and while they could occasionally see a squadron of Mantine in the distance, leaping in and out of the water, or a spurt of pressurized air from a Wailmer or Wailord's blowhole, as well as the constant swarm of Tentacool which were always abundant in Kanto waters, Leaf's near constant use of the Repels which had been given to her by the other inhabitants of the lifeboat kept all of them away.

It took, according to Ash's and Leaf's watch, another two hours until Leaf finally spied land. By that time the two had double checked their backpacks, tossing out what was unsalvageable and thanking every power that possibly could have been involved that their containers were waterproof.

It took another half hour until they reached the sighted land, and once off of Shimmer Ash couldn't help but kiss the ground in glee—there was a reason why, despite Gyarados's seeming usefulness in traveling as a water/flying type, no one actually used it as such. It moved by rolling its body up and down, and that sensation was unpleasant at the best of times. When you were feeling it while still recovering from a near-death experience? Yeah. Ash was halfway to throwing himself in the water and hoping for the best well before they actually saw land, much less reached the beach.

"So, map girl, do you know where we are?" Ash asked after he finally got his emotions back under control.

"Umm…" Leaf was holding the map. "Well, the Sevii Islands."

"I know that! Which island?" Ash griped. He pulled his backpack from her shoulders, digging into it to find the container which had his clothes.

"Well do you want to look?" Leaf snapped, before sighing. "Sorry. It's just… not really clear. I think we're going to have to do some exploring to actually figure it out."

Ash nodded, and after a quick change and small snack each, they both released a Pokemon (Boreas and Leaf's Raticate, Nibbles) before they setting off towards the center of the island.

It wasn't until late evening that the Staraptor reported anything back. Boreas, who had been looking aerially while Nibbles kept watch for danger on the ground, cawed suddenly, snapping both Leaf and Ash out of a conversation on possibly stopping for the night, and swooped down, landing in a whoosh just in front of Leaf and Ash.

"You see something?" Ash asked. The Staraptor cawed again, before using his wing to gesture to the front of the group, a little to the left of their current trajectory.

"Oh thank Arceus!" Leaf shouted, taking off immediately. Ash grinned and took off after her, going a bit more slowly in respect to his less than fully recovered lungs.

Boreas had, as it turned out, found a bridge. It was slightly damaged from the wind and waves, and looked as if it hadn't been subject to any maintenance for at least a decade, but it was still clearly serviceable. On the other side, directly to the left of the bridge, an unassuming house sat, completely unaware of the two teens sprinting towards its door. Further in the distance there were the glints of incandescent lighting which hinted of a town. Leaf and Ash didn't hesitate in crossing the bridge and barging into the nearest house, open door or not.

Once across the bridge both trainers recalled their Pokemon before knocking. The man who opened the door could be generously called middle aged and had a nose which, honestly, was more shaped like a durian fruit than anything else, but he was still the most amazing sight either youngster had seen all day. "Hello?"

As the two told him their story the man, Mr. Blackthorn, prepared them some tea. After they finished explaining what had happened, and he had made clear that they were allowed to stay with them as long as they'd like—"And don't you worry about being a burden—we don't go no hotel and the Pokemon Center hasn't got many rooms, so whenever the trainers come to challenge the gym they stay with one of us"), he explained to them that they were actually on Seven Island, which was an unfortunate landing spot in how the only way off was a monthly boat which wasn't due until October 15th (it was September 27th) and there was almost no cellular connection in town to call for help—in fact, the only serviceable one was owned by an old lady, Mrs. Wilkins, who watched online battles non-stop, and it was such a crappy connection that the videos took up all of the bandwidth and still came in more than a little patchy.

After agreeing to stay there the night and see about the connection in the morning he also forced them both to accept an expensive TM—Swords Dance—that he happened to own multiple copies of, having been a TM inventor prior to his retirement to the "wilderness with plumbing" that was Seven Island. Both Ash and Leaf would have been significantly happier about the TM if they could have kept their eyes open while receiving it.

The next morning the two trainers went straight to Mrs. Wilkins, who turned out to be an incredibly crotchety old woman who "could care less about your sob-stories! I've heard them all anyway!". But eventually she agreed that in exchange for them performing a quick battle for her (they pitted Leaf's Tranquill Noble against Ash's Luxio Zeus, and while Zeus won it was by a disappointingly low margin) in exchange for one call.

They phoned Professor Oak.

'Well," the professor started after they finished explaining the situation, "I'm very happy you two are okay. You had your parents worried! Myself too! As for getting back to the mainland, I'll call in a few favors and get the Seagallop Ferry to come as soon as possible—I should probably be able to have it arrive in a day or so. In the meantime, have you thought of battling the Trainer Tower? It's an aspiring gym, I know, but it does focus on the dragon type and the experience will be useful even if the gym itself isn't as professional as you're used to."

Ash and Leaf glanced at each other, then nodded. "Yeah, that sounds fine." Ash said for Professor Oak's benefit, before they ended the call under the piercing gaze of Mrs. Wilkins—apparently Agatha of the Elite Four was about to do a live training battle pitting two of her Gengar against each other, and Mrs. Wilkins wanted the signal back before it started.

Given the scarcity of any other building on the island (there was a few other houses, sure, and a dinky Pokemon Center, but little else) Leaf and Ash decided to challenge the gym immediately after getting themselves (read: Ash) and their Pokemon checked out. The Nurse at the Pokemon Center, Smith rather than Joy, had been able to fix up Ash's lungs despite not being a human health expert, and all of their Pokemon were basically unharmed from the earlier events.

By noon they had made it to the tower, and the gym was much more massive than either Ash or Leaf had expected.

Given what they had been told at Pallet Basic Education, the two had basically assumed that it would be a shabby little building with only the leader and a few easily beat Pokemon—the school had not exactly been kind when discussing aspiring Pokemon gyms, for all that their badges were technically legal. Trainer Tower was, instead, a massive ancient stone keep, much larger than Bill's lighthouse, with a 'gate keeper' stationed in front to welcome new trainers.

"Hail, Travelers! Come hither!" The man shouted as they approached.

Leaf and Ash glanced at each other, before waving back.

"Hi."

"Sup."

"Good morrow young lord and lady. Do ye dare engage in melee with the knights of the Trainer Tower to gain ye a golden medal of honor?"

"Sure."

"'s why we're here, isn't it?"

"Ye can take upon the challenge of the tower only if ye offer the massive keep a boon—if ye agree to labor and toil for the tower until the season of the next journey of the mighty Seagallop then ye may fight."

"Um…"

"What?"

It took another 15 minutes until they finally managed to figure out what the man was saying. Using a really crappy imitation of Old English, the man explained the way the gym worked. You could challenge the gym whenever and however much you wanted for as long as you were on the island, but whether you won or lost you had to stay in the tower and fight anyone else trying for a badge (if you lost, then the badge you lost on. If you won, then the next badge up). It was a surprisingly good way of organizing it, especially because the intermittent journeys of the Seagallop ensured pretty well that none of the trainers would try to skip out after getting their badge. Further, while all the badges one could earn were golden, the number of dragon-purple lines that it had was determined by how many times you had to try for the badge.

"NOW, Do ye dare engage in melee with the knights of the Trainer Tower to gain ye a golden medal of honor? Yes or no, please. I'm getting a bit sick and tired of this too."

Leaf and Ash, of course, agreed.

After flipping a coin, it was decided that Leaf would go first, and when she finished it would be Ash's turn.

While he waited for Leaf to finish Ash pulled out his pokeballs and walked a distance away from the gatekeeper before releasing his Pokemon. The night before he had outlined the bare minimum of what had occurred, but now that he had some time on his hands he knew that he owed his Pokemon a full explanation.

"I guess it's time to explain what's happened again." Ash sighed and looked around at his team. When one began to put all of the different events together—the Viridian Pokemon Center robbery, the Mt. Moon fiasco, the thing that happened at Cerulean Gym, the Nugget Bridge, the bombing of Vermillion, the incident with the Dragonite… Ash was getting very, very tired of Team Rocket. He sighed again and rubbed his eyes, leaning against a tree, before beginning to explain to his team the latest in his series of Team Rocket encounters.

Barely a few sentences in Zeus and Eacus began to growl. Only a few seconds after that Tyche began to coo, and only a few more words after _that_ Eacus leapt into Ash's lap, nuzzling his belly. Boreas and Bacchus both sidled up to either side of Ash, silently offering their support, and Zeus and Sparta both edged closer as well. Triton began cooing alongside Tyche and the entire team radiated kindness and sympathy and anger on his behalf and exhaustion, too, because they were just as tired of this as he was. All of them had seen too much of the negative sides of humans in their relatively short lives, and Ash was getting a little bit sick and tired of continually getting caught in the middle of it.

Some part of him—a very large part of him—wanted to figure out a way to get to Lance the second he was on the mainland again and scream at the current Champion at the top of his lungs for as long as he was able.

But that was obviously not going to happen.

Ash knew putting all the blame on Lance was wrong too: yes, Champions were the leaders of their regions, but it had been generations since that control had been absolute. Today the Champion shared authority—and responsibility—with the Elite Four, the gym leaders, the police, and the local councils of towns without gyms. And for all that Ash wanted to argue that, given Team Rocket's rise to and maintenance of power, this system was a bad one, he knew for all its faults it was nonetheless significantly better than putting all of the weight of an entire region on one person's shoulders.

Still, a continued absolute monarchy would have been easier to blame, for all that it would be harder to have his voice heard.

But that didn't exactly leave many more options in terms of what to do.

Ash grimaced and shook his head, before refocusing on his team.

"Alright guys, I need something to distract me and while I'm sure Trainer Tower will do the trick once we get in, we should do something else in the meantime.

…any ideas?"

Bacchus mimed dancing, which was as good an idea as any, so Ash grabbed his radio and found a station with a good connection before grabbing Eacus and spinning him around. Before long the rest of the team began to join in, with Triton hopping around, Tyche twirling in circles, Boreas preforming acrobatics in the air, Zeus rolling around on the ground, and even Sparta providing some percussive stomps.

The group danced for almost a full hour before Ash, laughing and somehow both worn out and reenergized, finally called for a stop, pulling out berries for the group to munch on while they waited on the Trainer Tower.

About an hour later a bell at the top of the tower dinged, and Ash finally entered the gym, glancing about as the gatekeeper began to hit a bell at the center of the room four times, telling the trainers and leaders above what to prepare for.

The inside of the keep was dim, lit only with the occasional fluorescent light shaped like an old fashioned torch. The walls and floor was, of course, stone and stairs began immediately to the left of Ash and twisted up, curling around a large central column which prevented him from seeing that far ahead. Given that the rest of the ground level had nothing in it but the bell, Ash turned and mounted the first step, ready for anything the Tower could throw at him.

The last peal of the bell petered out, and Ash rolled his shoulders. It had taken Leaf three hours? He'd try to do it in two.


	21. Island Seven

The first few levels went quicker than Ash would've liked. Many were empty—this certainly wasn't the most popular gym in Kanto—and those that weren't had trainers that had clearly targeted aspiring gyms due to their relative easiness.

Ash's first real opponent was a Kanto Navy Ensign. He stood six feet tall and while Ash couldn't really tell if his bulk was composed primarily of muscle or adipose, it didn't really matter—he was an intimidating figure regardless. He introduced himself as Alberto, and had an interesting accent—Urubos perhaps?

He had a sharp look about him regardless, sharper than any of those before him, and Ash twisted a Pokeball in his hand as he waited for Alberto's signal—both would release at the same time.

"Go!"

Two identical flashes of light revealed a Feraligatr and Zeus. Nice.

"Spark." Ash whispered. Across from him Alberto let out a sharp whistle—he wasn't the first trainer Ash had met that gave out silent commands (AJ had that honor), but this was the first time that it occurred to Ash that he may want to look into a way to do that too.

In front of him Zeus let out a rather unfocused bolt of electricity as ice-energy began to glow around the Feraligatr's mouth while the massive Pokemon darted towards Zeus with surprising speed.

Both moves hit, but thanks to the spark's super-effectiveness and Zeus's familiarization with ice fang, one of the Pokemon came out of the encounter looking much more worse for the wear than the other.

Before Ash had time to give another command Alberto whistled again. While Ash could tell it wasn't the same whistle as the one before, he had no clue what move it meant. 

"Spark again." Ash whispered—don't fix what isn't broken.

Zeus leapt forward and attacked his larger opponent once more as the Feraligatr began to thrash around wildly—flail. Shit. Ash would have to end this fast.

"Quick, Zeus! Another Spark!"

The two Pokemon clashed again, and while the Feraligatr had definitely fainted Zeus didn't look far from collapse either. Ash grit his teeth—he hadn't even considered a way to defend against flail, and he had lucked out that the water type didn't know any ground moves—he knew for a fact that Feraligatr could learn earthquake. He didn't have much time to consider that, though—Alberto was already pulling out his next Pokemon. Ash quickly recalled Zeus and withdrew his next Pokemon—Boreas, a safe bet given that it would be super effective against grass, a frequent mainstay on sailing-based teams.

Across from him a Mamoswine appeared and his luck disappeared. (Really? Mamoswine? Really, Alberto? What kind of sailor are you?) The dragon type gym ran on two Pokemon battles—he could only use the first two Pokemon he pulled out, and neither of them were even a little effective against Mamoswine.

Damn it.

Still, he had a plan.

"Double team, Boreas, until I tell you to stop."

The Staraptor immediately followed its trainer's instructions as across from the room Alberto let out a series of piercing whistles.

Ice attacks rained on Boreas from every angle, but he managed to avoid many of them, dancing about the air and constantly forcing his energy out to make him more evasive. Nevertheless, the Mamoswine still got more than a few glancing shots off of Boreas, but Ash was counting on that.

"Come on… come on… just a little longer…" A shard of ice slashed across Boreas's side and Ash knew he wouldn't be able to take another hit, no matter how glancing.

"Endeavor and quick attack!" He whispered. He clenched his fists as Mamoswine let out a loud roar and outright charged towards Boreas, who was having trouble staying in the air. Boreas faltered, but managed to both dodge and get off endeavor with few issues. Unfortunately, before he could get off quick attack the Mamoswine slammed into him. It wasn't even an ice move, it looked like Takedown, but it was more than enough to knock Boreas out.

Ash quickly swapped his Staraptor for his Luxio. Alberto swapped the Mamoswine's ice moves for its ground-type set just as fast.

It took one hit for Zeus to get knocked out. A mud slap, of all things—a move that Zeus could even perform!—and it had downed Zeus before he could even try for a counterattack.

Alberto watched him as Ash numbly returned Zeus. This was only his second major loss, and it was in an aspiring gym. And not even with the leader! It was… it was…

"Bad luck, kid." Alberto said. "You were right to guess that most sailors wouldn't have a Mamoswine on their teams—hell, the only reason I have one is because before I was in the Navy I lived in the mountains."

Ash stared at him, then shook his head and laughed, shaking Alberto's hand. "It was a good match, but I didn't lose because of bad luck. I need to improve my Pokemon's movepools, and work on choosing Pokemon that can compensate for each other's weaknesses in battles. Even if you didn't have a Mamoswine, there was a good chance that you'd have an ice type, and I didn't even think of that. Still, at least some good will come out of this—my Staraptor was getting a big head, and hopefully this'll deflate it a bit."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Alberto asked. "I know it's hard for you youngsters to lose battles, especially ones you thought you were gonna win."

Ash grimaced at being called a youngster, but that was what he was—every other trainer class had requirements and while it might've been nice to be called a black-belt, he sure as hell wasn't going to go through the strenuous physical training required for that class.

"Yeah, I just… I haven't been having the best time, recently. I was really looking forward to a win, you know?"

"Well, there's always next time." Alberto said, patting his shoulder. "Just keep on moving. Everyone loses sometimes, I promise. The real mark of a trainer is the ability to keep on going afterwards and not give up."

Ash thanked Alberto again for the battle, and the advice, and walked back down the seven flights of stairs and out of the tower. The gatekeeper, Stan, let him go to the Pokemon Center for an hour to heal up his Pokemon, before directing him to the third floor. He showed him a small room to the side he could use when not competing, and told Ash to listen to the ringing of the bells to tell when it was his time to fight—four clangs and he was up. Stan would collect him personally after everyone else had gone around again for his own turn. There were, apparently, about 40 trainers currently trying for the badge, and about four of them were trying for the fourth badge.

The minute the gatekeeper left Ash let out all of his Pokemon. It was a bit cramped, but if Ash pressed himself completely against Bacchus and Sparta held Eacus, then everyone could fit okay.

"We lost." Ash said. Rip off the band aid, right?

Bacchus was so surprised that he nearly hopped into the ceiling, knocking Ash towards Tyche, who spun out of the way but hit Sparta in the process, knocking him and Eacus into Boreas while Ash slammed into Zeus, who let out a small amount of electricity (Ash really had to do something about that) which targeted Triton, causing him to try to lash out in turn.

"Stop! Stop! Stop!" As Ash shouted the bell at the base of the tower clanged three times. "Everyone, settle down. Everything's okay. Here, Eacus, let me hold you for a bit, and—Wow you're getting big—and Boreas, could you move over… yes, over there… and then… yes! That's it. Okay, is everyone comfortable?"

His team let out various noises, of acknowledgement more than confirmation, but they weren't exactly overwhelmed with choices.

"Fine, fine." Ash said as Eacus settled into his lap (he, at least, seemed comfortable.) "So, here's what happened. After Tyche's battle with the Weezing Zeus went up against a Feraligatr and won, but got pretty hurt in the process. I predicted his next Pokemon wrong and brought out Boreas when I shouldn't have and… I mean, he tried as hard as he could but Alberto brought out a Mamoswine.

Boreas shuffled a bit and huffed. It was obviously still more than a little upset that it had been knocked out—the last time that had happened might've been when he evolved for the first time in Cerulean City.

The rest of the team also looked more than a little disappointed. After everything that happened they had been looking for a nice win just as much as Ash had, and Ash knew it was his fault that they hadn't gotten it—he'd bet anything that Tyche, Bacchus, Triton, and Sparta all would have been able to take the Mamoswine out if given the chance, but Ash had spent to little time considering what Alberto's second Pokemon would be—grass types were common, yes, but so were electric types, and Ash hadn't even considered that. He grimaced. Pokemon Champions didn't make mistakes like that. They didn't make mistakes (in battling, at least) at all. The one thing that Ash had always been very, very good at was Pokemon battling and now?

It was probably just the stress, he knew, but going home would only exacerbate it, his location a constant reminder of his failure. He had to continue on, but with more thought and effort than before. He'd immediately assumed that an aspiring gym couldn't be that hard, and look how that turned out.

The bell clanged four times.

"We'll talk more later, guys. I'll try to do something to make it up to you—implement more training, and the like—but for now we have to battle some." Ash recalled his Pokemon and opened the door back into the main area of the floor. It was time to put thoughts into actions and actually battle smarter, instead of relying on the sheer strength of his Pokemon.

He won the battle, and the one after it. Between the two he took out his Pokemon one by one, working with them each individually on how to improve.

With Tyche, his first ever Pokemon, who he had taken to instantly and who had grown tremendously, he worked on Imprison. It was a bit of a silly move, but the next in line for her to use, and Ash knew better now than to try to send her out only against Pokemon she was strong to. His last loss proved that that wasn't a particularly useful line of thinking—no trainer ever wanted to be predictable, so he had to be careful to try to plan for all situations. Given the relative difficulty of learning the move, however (what with it necessitating a bit of the type of energy of every other known attack to perform), Ash decided to leave it at that for now, though he knew that if he wanted to start with non-verbal battling he'd have the best chance with her.

With Bacchus, his first addition to his party, he worked on tactics against fire types, or more specifically how to live even after taking super-effective hits. He also had Bacchus start practicing releasing stun spores and poison powder on top of his skin as soon as he entered battle. Ash hoped that with enough practice the tactic could mimic abilities like Static or Poison Point.

With Boreas, his second selection Pokemon, he worked on speed. Boreas hadn't taken the loss well, so Ash had Zeus hit the Staraptor with Spark repeatedly until he started to falter, and then practice speed like that. It wasn't an enjoyable experience for anyone involved, but if Ash and Boreas wanted the Staraptor's stamina to improve that was the only way to go about it.

With Triton, the first non-selection Pokemon he captured without a battle (an increasingly common practice for Ash), Ash worked on power. While he and Leaf had been riding Shimmer neither had been particularly comfortable being in the water with so many powerful Pokemon without a powerful one of their own in position to defend them, so Ash decided to acquiesce to Triton's desires and start prepping him to try Ocean fighting. Unfortunately in the small enclosed room there wasn't much of a chance of practicing moves underwater, but Ash had Triton do all of the exercises they'd learned from AJ over and over again until he simply couldn't anymore. It wasn't the best method, but until the Seagallop came there wasn't really another one available. Thankfully, the good Professor had implied that it wouldn't take more than a day or two.

But until that happened Ash kept on working with his Pokemon, turning to his Luxio Zeus next. Zeus's training consisted of one aspect and one aspect only: NO MORE SPARKS! The Luxio had an incredibly annoying habit of shooting off electricity whenever he experienced any emotion at all, and while Ash knew that was a common aspect of electric Pokemon, he'd prefer not to have to deal with constant jolts every time he tried to interact with one of his Pokemon.

After Zeus he moved to the youngest team member, Eacus. Eacus was significantly larger now, and while he was nowhere near evolution Ash judged him to be somewhat close to the level most of the rest of the team was at around the time of the Cerulean Gym, or a bit higher. The Houndour's job was easy: learn Bite. Given that his "rival" Zeus (the two really couldn't help but compete) already knew the move, Eacus was more focused than ever on his training, and by the end of their session Ash could proudly say that there were only a few more hours until Eacus had it down pat.

Finally Ash worked with Sparta. While the fighting type spent most of the session working on Mind Reader with Tyche, Ash also set aside more than a bit of time to focus on the Hitmonlee's prior maltreatment. According to every Pokemon psychology book Ash had ever read, Pokemon did not always react well to past abuse, particularly if it happened for an extended period of time. While Eacus mostly got out of that because he had been with Damian for such a short time, Sparta was by all accounts high-risk, which meant that he was liable to snap and begin attacking. While his Serious nature and, oddly enough, fighting type decreased the risk (for a reason beyond the understanding of researchers, Fighting types were much less likely to have these 'psychotic breaks'), they didn't get rid of it, so Ash knew he had to spend some time at least every other day giving Sparta one-on-one attention and feeding it its favorite foods to diminish the risk of human-hate, like the Bulbasaur from so long ago had.

Ash had only managed to go through his entire roster once and pull out Tyche to start the rota again when the bell started ringing 10 times, the sign that the Seagallop had arrived. As he exited the tower he heard Stan grumbling about unexpected trips. He guessed it was more than a little inconvenient for the gym that the Ferry had made the detour, but he was more than ready to get back to the mainland himself, so he felt little sympathy.

As he headed towards the ship he kept an eye out for Leaf, eventually spotting her just as he was boarding.

He called out to her and they met on the deck of the Ferry, pausing their salutations as the intercom stuttered on.

"Hello, this is your captain John B. John speaking. As this was an unforeseen stop to the trip we will be resuming our regular route at this time. Our next stop will be at the Mechanical Monsters Themepark, before we will arrive on our next destination of Porta Vista on Three Island. After a one day stop there, we will make our way to Vermillion again."

"So it'll take over a full day to finally make it back to civilization?" Ash muttered.

"I don't know about that. Porta Vista counts as civilization any way you look at it—it's a major tourist destination, it's basically taken over all of Three Island, and it's the largest city on the non-contiguous part of Kanto. It's actually inhabited by about 1% of… What?"

"Since when did you become Ben?"

"That's mean!" Leaf whined. Ben was really well known in Pallet Basic Education for being an endless font of information, and while he was never really bullied by anyone other than Gary, 'pulling a Ben' meant providing way too much information when asked a simple question. Thankfully, Ben had figured out how to tone it down after accidently spending a half-hour talking about the origins of the lawn, which itself was a non-sequitur from his initial non-sequitur of grass (though no one understood how he'd gotten onto that subject either.)

"No it's not! All I was doing was… well, okay, I was being mean. But that doesn't mean I wanted a lecture on the demography of Porta Vista."

Leaf laughed, then suddenly sobered. "Hey… I didn't hear you making it past my floor."

Ash shifted uncomfortably, not exactly happy with the change of topic. "Um… no. Alberto got me—I completely messed up in choosing what Pokemon to use."

Leaf frowned. "He was tough—used a Lanturn and a Weepinbell, of all things, against me and if I hadn't been training up my Raticate as much I would've been sunk. I have a giant Electric type weakness on my team as-is."

Ash grimaced. "It was his Mamoswine that got me—I really wasn't expecting a ground type, or even an Ice type given that he'd already shown his pure water type Feraligatr."

"Ooh. He had a Feraligatr?" Leaf said, leaning forward.

"I thought you liked stereotypically weak Pokemon!" Ash said, laughing at her eagerness.

"Well, yes, but it's not exactly like there are many Feraligatr trainers anymore. They get so vicious… I wish I could talk to him about his training techniques. You didn't happen to see him get on the ship, did you?"

"Nope." Ash said. "But to be fair, I think only about ten people left. The rest probably wanted to try and see if they could win with less competitors."

"Yeah, probably." Leaf sighed, staring back at Seven Island.

As lost as he usually was when trying to understand Leaf's interests, Ash redirected the subject. "You won, though, right? I can't imagine you losing."

"Oh, um. Yes." Leaf said. She suddenly jolted, then turned to her backpack. "Actually, I have something for you, given that you didn't…um, win." She pulled something out of the front pocket and held it out to Ash. "The Dragonite of the gym leader's father, Jim, had just died, and so they were giving away his scales to anyone who won."

It was a Dragon Scale, luminous in the sunlight, with its natural coloring drained by the death of the Dragon-type.

"I can't take that!" Ash yelped. Dragon Scales were notoriously difficult to come by. Pokemon hunting was, of course, illegal in the modern era, and Dragon-types had such naturally long lives that once they passed away there was a huge demand for their scales. While they were particularly useful to Seadra owners, being necessary to evolve them, they also clearly boosted the power of living dragon types when attached to their living scales, so any Dragon owner would vie as much as they could for as many as they could—while scientists argued over whether the benefit of the scales was cumulative, at the very least owning multiples meant that your opponents couldn't have any of the ones you did, and that was enough for many Dragon trainers to buy them the second they came onto the market, regardless of how many they already owned.

"Of course you can. I don't own a Seadra, and considering how I'm structuring my team, it's unlikely that I'm ever going to get a Dragon type. You, on the other hand, can use it immediately."

"I can't just take if from you!" Ash said. "How about this. You hold onto it, and I'll try to find something to trade it for. If I haven't found anything by… Christmas, then you can give it to me."

Leaf considered this. It was currently the afternoon of September 29th, so there were less than three months until Christmas. "Fine." She nodded. "But I'd give it to you now if you could just get over your pride. It's not exactly like we haven't been through enough shit already that I can't trust you to pay me back eventually if you can."

"Still, I can't get over my pride, so this'll make me feel better. Thanks."

Leaf harrumphed, but didn't bother arguing further. This may have been largely because of the giant orange Charizard that suddenly loomed over them.

"Oh." Leaf said in a small voice as the faux-fire breathing Pokemon roared. "I think we've arrived at the Themepark."

"Oh." Ash said in an equally small voice as a monstrous mechanical Gyarados leapt out of the water, acting out a fake attack on the Charizard.

While it was no doubt very cool when you expected them, when you weren't, and you, say, had recently been attacked by a giant orange Pokemon with wings, then it got a bit more terrifying.

Ash made a mental note to look up phobias and how to treat them when he got to a computer. While he really doubted that he had developed an actual phobia, he'd prefer not to freeze if his Pokemon were sent up against a Dragonite at any time in the future.


	22. Porta Vista Problems

Porta Vista was… well, it was probably the closest thing to a tropical paradise Kanto's climate was capable of. Due to something about ocean currents which Ash had never paid much attention to, the entire archipelago was several degrees warmer year round than the main land. That said, only Three Island, the location of Porta Vista, really took advantage of it.

Ash and Leaf had arrived at the city, and specifically Hutber port, the day before, and were promptly kicked off the boat—apparently there was an issue at the Mechanical Monsters Themepark with an oil spill (who would have figured that putting giant oil-fueled mechanical giants in the water, before promptly bashing them with other giant mechanical monsters, would be a bad idea), and all ships were promptly called in to help with the clean-up efforts. Which meant he and Leaf were stuck. Again.

At least Porta Vista had better connectivity. Ash had spent most of the evening talking with his mom, and even after two hours she still wasn't happy with his decision to continue on with his journey. But, given that he was legally an adult, it was his decision to make, so she promised to support him even if she wasn't exactly thrilled with his choices. He also spent some time introducing her individually to all his Pokemon who she had yet to meet. She was very taken with Eacus.

But now it was morning.

Ash and Leaf had decided to split up the day before, each wanting to focus on different things for the duration of their forced vacation, so Ash was on his own.

He, as usual when arriving in a new town, had decided to wander around. There was a Berry Forest he'd considered checking out, but to his mother's everlasting chagrin he didn't actually have any real interest in berries, and the Pokemon which frequented the forest weren't particularly interesting to him. He then considered searching for the fabled tunnel to Dunsparce that a number of residents had told him about, but… Dunsparce. So, no. He'd also tried to go deeper into the city, towards the less touristy-areas, but apparently the "vision of the sea", as the town slogan put it, was apparently having a bit of an issue with gangs, so that was out too.

Quicker than he would have liked Ash found himself walking back to the Pokemon Center. Porta Vista may have been many things to many people, but a trainer's town was not one of them. There wasn't a gym or a designated training area, and while they had Pokemon deep within Berry Forest, most of them were Hypno, which had a nasty habit of tricking you into thinking that you, too, were a Hypno if you got too close.

…Maybe he should check out the Dunsparce. Arceus knows that's probably where Leaf was, and at least company would make the day less boring.

Just as Ash was about to turn around and head to the bus stop, something caught his eye. On the left side of the Pokemon Center, lining the wall abutting the sidewalk, was a row of faces.

Children's faces.

 **MISSING MISSING MISSING MISSING MISSING MISSING MISSING MISSING MISSING MISSING MISSING MISSING**

Twelve posters. Twelve kids. The last one was still being put up by an Officer Jenny, and the boy pictured looked a lot like Ash had just five or six years ago.

"All these kids are missing?" Ash asked as he neared the police officer.

She sighed. "Yes. They've been going missing for three days now. We've checked everywhere—this isn't the first time a child went missing, you know, but usually it's just them going too far into the Berry Forest and getting hypnotized by a Hypno, but we have daily checks there and no children have turned up. So now… well, now we're kind of at a loss."

Ash stared as the picture of his younger doppelganger. "There's really… no leads at all?" He felt ill. These were little kids. They weren't supposed to go missing. They were supposed to be at home, whining about homework.

"No." Officer Jenny said. She gazed down the line of posters. "They have nothing in common, their friends don't know anything…" She sighed. "At this point, we have to turn to the idea of a human perpetrator."

Ash's stomach clenched.

In truth, crimes against children were ridiculously rare. Most crime in the modern day was organized crime, and they generally, either out of some sense morality or a stronger sense of pragmatism, stayed far away from children. But that didn't mean that it never happened.

"Is there… is there anything I can do?"

"Keep an eye out for their faces and any suspicious activity, of course. But besides that, there's not much." The Officer looked down the wall again, then shook her head. "And the worst part is that this isn't the only thing that's been happening."

"What?!"

"There's the oil spill, the Biker gang's acting up, demanding extortion money from a number of small businesses, Pokemon within the city are all inexplicably exhausted, so it looks like an unknown illness is going around… By this point the sheer number of issues is making it hard to stop any one source of trouble. If it keeps up we'll likely have to institute spartan law and call in Ace Trainers like they did in Vermillion just to get everything back under control. And won't the residents just love that!" She sighed, then suddenly realized that she was talking to a civilian. "There's nothing to worry about, really. We'll get to the bottom of this." She saluted, then left on her bike, leaving Ash in front of the wall of faces.

Ash… Ash felt like his chest was constricting. He could feel himself sweating, but he felt cold. His hands were shaking and he couldn't catch his breath. He stumbled onto the concrete and tried to calm down, but he felt like he was about to puke and he couldn't stop shaking. He squeezed his eyes shut, and told himself not to open them until he felt better.

"…Ash! Ash!" He opened his eyes slowly, squinting against the light. A shadow covered his face and the world blinked into vision. Leaf was kneeling over him, blocking the sun, and looking very concerned. "Are you okay?"

"No." Ash said. He carefully didn't turn around, not wanting to risk looking at the pictures again.

"Um… do you want to talk about it?" Leaf asked, sitting next to him. Based on the position of the sun he'd been curled into a ball in the middle of the sidewalk for about an hour, and wasn't the fact that no one had tried to help before Leaf just a marvelous example of humanity at work?

"Do you see those posters?"

"Yes?...Oh." Leaf said, apparently actually reading their contents for the first time.

"Yeah. Oh." Ash said. "And the Officer Jenny that I met said that wasn't the only thing going on too—on top of the missing kids and the oil spill, the biker gang's also acting up and the Pokemon within the town are coming down with some kind of virus.

It's just… First was Viridian, where Team Rocket invaded the Pokemon Center I was in. Then was Mt. Moon, where Team Rocket were trying to mine it of its resources using unsafe practices. Then in Cerulean not only did Team Rocket rob a store and the Gym, they also set up a recruitment effort in broad daylight _while they were being investigated._ The less said about Bill's lighthouse the better, and that doesn't even mention Team Rocket actually bombing Vermillion itself, as well as the Squirtle that were living on the outskirts. And then there was the S.S. Anne! And now… now… now on top of Team Rocket, I apparently have to worry about biker gangs, and oil spills, and odd area-wide Pokemon illnesses, and somebody kidnapping kids!"

"I mean, no one's expecting you specifically to stop any of it." Leaf said tentatively.

"Oh?" Ash laughed, more cruelly than he meant to, "they're not? So who is going to stop it, then? The police? They were a big help the last couple times! Oh no, I know! You meant Lance! Well, I'm sorry if you didn't get the message, but apparently he's too busy for trivial little things like Team Rocket or missing kids. He's the champion after all! Much too busy to actually to the damned job he's being paid to do."

"Ash…" Leaf trailed of, and looked at the posters again. "You know Champion Lance trying, right? It's just… there's been more calamities this year than usual, and… well, Champion Lance has already personally helped destroy three Team Rocket bases, and there was that whole corruption thing in Sable City, and there was the wildfire that he helped put out between Lavender town and Fuchsia, and… he's trying his best. And so are the police."

"Well his best isn't good enough!" Ash snapped, jumping to his feet. Then, quieter, "His best's not good enough."

Leaf sighed. "I know."

"There are people that are dead in Vermillion."

"I know."

"The kids here have been missing for over 48 hours."

"I know."

"They already searched the Berry Forest—because of the danger of Hypno, you know? But apparently no kids. Which means… which means that they've had to consider abduction."

Leaf just nodded. Ash sat down beside her again.

"I don't remember so much crap happening last year. Did it?"

Leaf nodded. "Remember the missing kid from Lavender? Or the gang riots in Dark City? It was just… back then, we were more removed from it. Now that it's actually happening _to_ us, and _around_ us, it's starting to have a bigger impact."

Ash let out a breath. "I had a panic attack." Leaf jerked in surprise, then forced herself to relax. Ash recognized the actions from the training classes they'd had on skittish and erratic Pokemon. "I… I couldn't breathe, and I was nauseous, and…" even remembering it was causing his heart rate to speed up. "I don't think I'm dealing with these 'incidents' as well as I'm telling my mom I am."

Leaf leaned back, resting on her hands.

She paused, then spoke. "I've been seeing a therapist since I was thirteen."

It was Ash's turn to jerk in surprise.

Leaf laughed. "I know. I… nothing was _wrong_ , you know? I had a great family, good friends, wonderful grades, enjoyable hobbies… but I felt, I don't know, I'd get really wrapped up in any mistake I'd make, and I'd make it the largest thing in my life, like if I didn't get an A on this homework _now_ then there was no chance I would get my dream job _later_. And therapy, it helped with that. Helped me understand that every single thing wouldn't irrevocably effect my life." She sat up. "I think… I think maybe it could help you too. You've been dealing pretty well, all things considered, but even just having someone to talk to? Someone who isn't your mom? Who you don't have to feel embarrassed talking to?"

Ash blushed, then nodded. "Yeah… that might be a good idea. It's just. I've always had this dream, you know, of getting through the Indigo League in a year, and becoming the youngest champion in history, and… it's hard for me to slow down, to do anything not directly related to my goal."

"Well," Leaf replied. "You know what they say: the Indigo League wasn't built in a day. And you certainly won't conquer it in one. If you need to take a breather, take a breather. If you'd prefer to continue on, continue on. Once there's a boat, of course. But don't… don't feel obligated to do the champion's job before you're the champion. For now… for now just try to be a teenager. Let the grown-ups deal with the issues."

"But what if the grown-ups are crap at dealing with the issues?" Ash sighed. Abruptly he shook his head and stood up. "I may not be able to do much but the least I can do is try. I know from experience—too much experience—that the police and the league aren't all-capable, so I'm going to go around making sure there isn't anything they've missed."

Leaf didn't seem particularly happy with his choice, but followed dutifully—she wasn't about to let him try to save the world alone.

First stop: the Pokemon Center.

"Hey Nurse Joy," Ash said, walking up to the front desk.

"Hello. Do you need me to look at your Pokemon?" She asked.

"Not right now." Leaf said. "We were actually just curious about the Pokemon's behavior, and wanted to see it in person before we let our Pokemon out in the city."

Nurse Joy sighed. "Oh yes, it is quite awful. Follow me, I'll show you."

She led them to a room behind her desk, where dozens of Pokemon beds in various sizes lined either side. Halfway through the room the beds were exchanged with moveable tanks. Dozens of Pokemon occupied the beds and tanks. At first sight Ash saw Pidgeotto, Gloom, Weepinbell, Goldeen, and Golduck, but there were many more that were blocked from view by the closer animals. All had their eyes open, but none of them seemed at all aware of their surroundings.

"The worst off is one youngster's Charmander," She said, leading them to a specially made fire-pit bed, where the young fire-type was lying in the middle of the flames. "If we hadn't gotten it into the fire as quickly as we did, well." She sighed. "Honestly, at this point, we don't know. We've called a number of Pokemon experts, but because all of the boats are occupied with the oil spill, they have to fly in, and because of the increasing chance of eruption at Cinnabar most of the planes are busy evacuating the island."

Ash grimaced. Of course the world was about to be set on fire.

"There's nothing that it could be?" Leaf asked, a bit skeptically.

"Of course not! There are many possibilities, especially because the police loaned us some of their sleep wave detectors, so we can tell that it's related to their sleep cycles. But the problem is that the most likely culprits—the Hypno cluster in Berry Forest—are the only possibility that we've ruled out. Other than that, we're currently between some kind of air-borne illness and a different, more powerful Pokemon causing it. We're running tests right now, though, so we're narrowing down what it could be." She stopped and looked at their faces, suddenly noticing exactly how scared they were. "There's nothing to worry about, really! The Pokemon experts will be here in two days at the latest—it doesn't actually take that long to do the initial cleanup of an oil spill, not with so many boats working together—and then we'll figure out what it is and start treating it!"

Ash was unconvinced but nodded and allowed himself to be led out of the room.

"…you're not going to stop investigating, are you?" Leaf asked.

"Nope."


	23. Porta Vista Panaceas

Just as Ash and Leaf were leaving the Pokemon Center, respectively intent and resigned on playing hero (not that the former thought of it that way), a police car whizzed by them, blaring its siren at full volume.

To be perfectly honest, this was the first (moving) police car Ash had ever seen—there had been two outside of the Cerulean Gym/Arena, and at least five in Vermillion City, and there had definitely been police and ambulances at the lighthouse, but he'd been inside for all of that, too wary of the damage to venture out until the next morning.

Cars were just… unusual in Kanto. While they definitely existed, and almost everyone could claim to have seen a couple dozen in their lifetime, their cost and effect on the environment were generally considered not worthwhile. Busses were more common—there was at least one bus route through every major city—but cars were more unusual, generally reserved for the government—like now—or for the upper class who didn't mind the cost. Most people just walked or biked—much cheaper and safer, for one, and for another significantly easier to maintain.

So when the car flew past Ash and Leaf, it wasn't only their eyes that it caught.

Behind the police car there was already a mob of people steadily jogging after it, and with barely a second of hesitation Leaf and Ash jumped in too. Moving at a steady jog, the crowd wound through the streets of the city, picking up passersby as it went, following the siren the entire way, until at last it slowed, coalescing into a fat round blob outside of a tall skyscraper in the eastern part of the city. It looked aristocratic, being made almost entirely of stone and having many useless embellishments up and down its façade, but there were no Pidgey on the roof, and the building as a whole seemed strangely silent and dark for that time of day. That said, there was no sign of a crime or a disturbance of any kind, but the police car had definitely beelined for this building in particular, and now it sat directly outside the entrance, with two police officers blocking the door as more arrived via motorbike.

Leaf and Ash tried to push forward too see more, or even into some of the lower windows, but the crowd was too thick, and they were forced to wait several dozen meters back from the entrance.

"Can you see anything?" Leaf shouted over the mob of people asking the exact same thing.

"No. You?" Ash shouted back. Leaf shook her head and looked around, but there really wasn't anything else to do—no one else seemed to have any idea what was going on, and no one was willing to leave until that changed.

Ash stared up at the building again. He tried to remember if he'd seen it before, but nothing was coming up beyond a few vague scenes from the theme songs of various Porta Vista-based TV shows of the city in general. He had no idea why it was so important. No one else seemed to figure it out either, but as the minutes continued to pile up, very few gave up and left—the use of the police car as well as the sheer number of officers on the scene kept everyone baited, and even drew in more people as first ten, then fifteen, then twenty minutes passed.

Almost a half hour after the police had initially arrived, the two officers guarding the front door shifted, and the front doors—oh so slowly—began to open.

Out of the building came a series of finely dressed men and women, all of them looking incredibly upset and more than a little irritated. Many of them were shouting over each other, but Ash only caught the tail-end of one of the comments, "…Lawyer! You'll see what—", before the noise of the crowd drowned out the rest of the sentence.

Just as the mob's pitch began to rise, more than prepared to demand answers out of anyone remotely involved, another siren broke the air. Ash and Leaf immediately found themselves being pushed to the side of the street, pressed far closer to strangers than they'd ever feel comfortable with, as an ambulance pushed through the middle of the road. This increased the muttering. Leaf and Ash shared a glance, wondering what was going on. Unfortunately, as soon as they moved to get a better look so did everyone else, and they were pushed back even further than before, losing their view of the front doors entirely. Leaf shook her head, irritated at their predicament, before shouting something at Ash.

"I can't hear you!" Ash shouted back. She leaned in and shouted again. Ash tapped his ear—no point in adding to the noise. Leaf shook her head again, even more irritated, before grabbing him and trying to put her foot onto his hip—oh. He grabbed her shoe and helped hoist her up, before glancing up at her as she craned her neck to the front of the building.

She suddenly blanched, then scrambled off his back. She mouthed something at him, then mouthed it again when it was clear he didn't understand. 'Kids.'

Kids?

Wait, the missing kids?

Before Ash could even think of any follow up questions—or how to communicate them—the siren started up again and peeled back the way it came, forcing Ash and Leaf once more to the side of the street. Before the crowd could push forward and spread out again, however, another screech was heard—thankfully, though, not from a siren, but a loudspeaker.

"Alright, citizens—and tourists—of Porta Vista. My name is Chief Jenny, and I understand you are very curious about what is happening, so I will give you a quick summary. An official press release will not happen until tomorrow.

As you probably know, in the past couple of days we have had a number of children—twelve, specifically—go missing. On top of that, Pokemon released within the city were also behaving oddly, acting catatonic. The good news is that we officially have all the children accounted for, and the Pokemon should soon be returning to normal.

As you may know, this building is, in part, the headquarters of the Pokemon Lover's Club. They chose a Pokemon every month to focus on, and this month's lucky winner was Hypno. Unfortunately, rather than study it in its natural habitat or do literally anything other than what they did, they decided to buy a battle-ready Pokemon from an elite four challenger and attempt to use its hypnosis as an insomnia aid.

I hope I don't have to tell you the problems with that.

Unfortunately, they were able to succeed in making an—untested, unapproved, and unsafe—machine which allowed the Hypno's natural somnolent powers to work on humans at close range to induce sleep. Because they did not try to register the machine, much less have it tested for any negative side effects, they did not know that the amplified hypnosis of Hypno would cause weaker young Pokemon to become catatonic. They also did not know that the same machine amplified sleep waves would cause humans whose brains weren't fully mature—children—who came to close to the waves to be effected in the same way they would be with a Hypno's natural powers, convincing them to act as if they, too were Pokemon. Because the Hypno, and the amplification machine, was facing the back of the building, all twelve children were found in the back garden, still somewhat effected by the Hypno's waves but otherwise without physical injury. Unfortunately, due to the length of time that they've been missing, all of them are currently being treated for dehydration and malnourishment, as well as sleep deprivation and sunburns, at Porta Vista Hospital."

The speaker—Chief Jenny—paused for a moment, then continued.

"Let this be a warning to you all—ignorance is not an excuse. If you are worried that something might be illegal, like, for instance, using an untested Pokemon- and human-involved machine, don't try to hide your actions—call the non-emergency number and we'll tell you if its illegal and why. The reason is often much, much better than us 'just wanting your hard-earned money'. I would also like to give a special thanks to the Pokemon Rangers, who had been mapping out Altering Cave on Six Island, but immediately came here and loaned us their more expensive sleep-wave monitoring equipment, which is thankfully why we were able to track down the children as quickly as we did. Both they and the Pokemon should soon be on their way to a full recovery. That is all."

As the crowd began to disperse Leaf and Ash stayed rooted to the middle of the road. Around them the people slowly dissipated, until at last only Ash and Leaf were left.

Ash stared at the building. "All this… sick Pokemon, missing kids, a city-wide search—caused by some people who wanted a sleep aid and couldn't be bothered to question why no-one had ever tried to use a Hypno before?"

Leaf smiled sadly. "Sounds about right."

"Everyone. Everyone knows that you are not allowed to use a machine that works directly on Pokemon or humans without first testing it." Ash said.

"Yep." Leaf replied.

"And they… just figured that that particular law—one of the first they bother to teach you about in Civics—didn't apply to them? That, that there was no reason for the law in the first place?"

Leaf sighed. "Ash, what they did was wrong, very wrong, but they're going to be punished for—"

"They called themselves the Pokemon Fan Club! Oh, but I guess they couldn't be bothered to remember the failed 'Super-Saur' experiment, where the scientists completely disregarded experimental ethics and tried to create a Bulbasaur that could create a potent antidote?! Did they not remember how that experiment caused an infection which spread to over three fourths of all wild and captured Bulbasaur and made the Pokemon an endangered species? Did they not remember learning about the Unovan Industrial Revolution's Litwick crisis, where it was found that overpopulating a building with Litwick caused increased levels of illness among children? Did they not remember any of the historical horror stories of what happens when someone tries to use Pokemon in a new way without bothering to test the effects?"

'I'm sure they remembered Ash, but—"

"Oh!" Ash said, laughing, "and let's not forget that this isn't the only problem—there's still the Biker Gang and the oil spill, and god know what else!"

"Ash—"

"Even if they had had the two braincells necessary to not do something this stupid, some other human would do something else that was idiotic, or cruel, or both and everything would be just as awful and hopeless!"

"But the police dealt with this!" Leaf shouted. Ash stared at her, shocked but finally paying attention, and she took a breath and continued. "Look, I know—I swear to Arceus that I know that everything is not perfect, and I know that your journey has been particularly unlucky, but would you just open your eyes for a second? The police did it. They saved all the children, and figured out what was wrong with the Pokemon. And, yeah, right now there's an oil spill, but every boats' already helping out with that, and yeah, some extortion is happening, and that sucks, but I bet that the police are going to take care of that just like they did this. Do you know how to deal with extortion? Do you? No, you don't, because there's no reason for you to. The police, on the other hand, have the training in how to deal with it— _safely_. So let them—obviously they're at least somewhat qualified. And yeah, it might take more than the day or so that you typically spend in a town. But not every problem can be solved in a day. So just… just let the police do their jobs, okay? Just because something's not fixed the moment you notice it doesn't mean that it'll stay that way forever, so get off your high horse and be grateful!"

Ash gaped at Leaf. "Um… okay." He said, a bit uncertainly. He knew he was acting a bit… irrational, but Leaf's response seemed a bit…much.

Leaf seemed to agree. She sighed and rubbed her forehead, looking very embarrassed. "…sorry. Look, I'm going to go… go calm down. I think, I think I also haven't been doing great with the whole shipwreck thing, and… well, like I said. The problems are being dealt with. So right now I just kind of want to take a break and decompress. That was supposed to be the point of today anyway, before we both got sidetracked. How about we meet up for dinner in the Pokemon Center cafeteria?"

"Yeah, definitely." Ash agreed. They were both acting a bit uncontrolled right now—they'd only found out about all of the Porta Vista issues that day, and half of them were already solved, but both of them were having a bit of an issue with adrenaline, though that admittedly applied more to him than her. Leaf was right; a little break wouldn't hurt anyone.

Agreed, and silently promising each other better moods later, the two trainers split up.

Ash, realizing that he'd skipped lunch, made for the first food stand he saw—"Magik Sticks!", otherwise known as Magikarp meat, mature tall grass grain, and something called 'fish byproduct', which Ash honestly didn't want to know the meaning of. He bought five. They were salty. He bought a soda too, before wandering down the road, considering if he actually wanted to take a nap or just lie down in the sand somewhere for a little while—maybe he could even take out his Pokemon? He wondered how long the Hypno's sleep waves would be in the air.

Just as he was beginning to calm down from the day's events, and seriously consider releasing Triton and going for a swim with him, came upon the beach.

As he stared out into the ocean, Ash knew that Leaf was, to some extent right: there were always issues, and it was only because he was a trainer who was actively around said issues that they seemed so much more common and terrible.

That said, when one is staring up at a Tentacruel about the same size as the building one just came from, that argument kind of flew out the window.

Admittedly, though, in this scenario there really wasn't anything Ash could do even if he wanted to: The Tentacruel (and its many, much smaller friends) seemed to be around the same spot as the oil spill, which was much, much farther away than Ash could reach by any of his current means—even Triton would flag halfway there. That said, it didn't look good—Ash could see some attacks hitting the giant creature, but he could also see that rather than fleeing what had been clearly been deemed that Tentacruel's territory the boats had to hold their position to avoid spreading the oil spill.

"Is that… is that a giant Tentacruel?" A woman who had come up beside him, equally stunned, asked.

"Yup." A man on the beach said. He was in a swimsuit, reclining on a beach chair with some sort of alcoholic mini-umbrella drink under a parasol, with sunglasses on. He looked every picture of an office worker taking a nice long vacation, despite the massive battle taking place a few hundred feet away directly in front of him.

"…where'd it come from?" Ash asked.

"The ocean floor. Tentacruel never stop growing, you know, it's just that as they get older they are either eaten or they go deeper—more space, you know. Mind, I've never seen one actually come to the surface after it gets longer than three or so meters, but I'm gonna go ahead and guess that the oil and the boats got it a little mad."

As the man explained where, exactly, the building-sized Tentacruel had some from, some of the other people on the beach began shouting, pointing at a small orange speck in the distance.

"Ah. That'll be Lance, I bet." The vacationer observed.

"What?" Ash said. He squinted his eyes, but the orange dot was still too far away—it was barely close enough to be called a blob.

"Yessir." The man replied. "Heard it on the radio a few minutes ago. Lance was in Vermillion, helping deal with the fallout of the Rocket Attacks, when the report on the oil spill and the gang and the missing kids and all that came in. He apparently immediately hopped on his Dragonite and headed straight out. The reporter said that its still unclear why the report took so long to get to him, though—the radio guy promised that channel 22.1 would do a full coverage daily report on the investigation the Ace Trainers have already promised."

"Oh." Ash considered the new information—bad news, yeah, in terms of Champion Lance apparently not being informed about Kanto goings-on, but also good news, in that Lance was actually doing his job. Out at sea Lance's Dragonite had finally come close enough to be identifiable even at Ash's distance, and he was now actively attacking the Tentacruel with one hyperbeam after another (and wasn't that great for Ash's Lighthouse flashbacks?).

Okay.

So maybe bad things did tend to happen around him, but maybe Leaf was right about that too—he was not even remotely in charge of solving the problems.

Ash watched the battle—now swayed significantly more in the human's favor—for a little longer, before coming to a decision.

Alright, fine. If he was going to prove this, there was one last thing he had to check.

…

According to Porta Vista's local radio station, channel 15.2, the Biker Gang (which was, apparently, actually called the Biker Gang) was an organized mob that, while mostly being generally thought of as a nuisance more than anything else, had recently taken up the fun game of "let's threaten random small business owners for 'protection' money that actually only protects them from us." The station also, handily, gave a list of the stores that the Bike Gang was known to have threatened, as well as an affirmation that police were patrolling all of those areas.

Ash went to three of the stores before one of the employees agreed to answer some of his questions—none of the police would even reply past "no comment."

"Yeah, I mean, it sucks that they came in—showed up during my shift, you know?—but we have video cameras all around the store, so the police were able to arrest the perpetrators pretty quick and get the money I had to give them back. Now they're just focusing on the ringleader."

"Do they have any clue who that is?"

"I mean, I know they have a couple suspects, but I think right now they're looking for solid evidence. Don't want the Biker getting out of the justice system scot free, right? But I doubt it'll take them much longer—now that the gang's actually committing federal crimes, if the police don't clean it up soon the Ace Trainers will end up coming, and they'd rather do it themselves."

Ash nodded, thanked the cashier for her time, and wandered back to the Pokemon Center.

That morning he had felt like everything was falling apart in the city, and, given past experiences, that it had been his job to fix it. Now, while he still knew the situation was far from perfect, the remaining problems no longer felt so dire, so imperative, so compelling.

He smiled. Maybe he'd keep his promise to Leaf after all.


	24. Making the Most of Island Three

After a surprisingly good dinner at the Pokemon Center cafeteria, in which both teens managed to keep the mood light and relaxing, Ash made his way back to the beach with Leaf by his side. The battle between Lance and the Tentacruel was still ongoing, but obviously winding down, and the two trainers even bought a pair of binoculars from an opportunistic, but thankfully rather cheap, vendor to watch the final moments before the giant Tentacruel sank back into the waves.

With the excitement over some of the crowd began to dissipate, but before too many people could leave a group of city-planners came out with large white sheets that they set up on the beach as the sky darkened. Apparently, there was typically movie night on Tuesdays (it was Sunday), but, given recent events, the city-planners had dug into their store of films to find a documentary on undersea life, so Leaf and Ash stayed on the beach until midnight, watching giant Wailord sail by schools of Remoraid. They saw Shellder and Octillery duking it out on the sea floor, and, sure enough, a group of oversized Tentacruel snacking on Relicanth while two rival schools of Huntail and Gorebyss has an all out war over a section of the sea and an oversized Alomomola floated past them in pursuit of a Chinchou. Unlike the land, or even the ocean's surface, the cold, dark, depths of the ocean was much less bound by the regionality of Pokemon: regardless of where they started, they would journey across the earth in search of food and mates. Mind you, this still wasn't particularly helpful for, say, someone who wanted to catch a Jellicent in Kanto: they may be near the coast, but they are so far down that without the help of a submarine a single trainer would never be able to reach them.

Still, the deep-sea living depicted was fascinating, and helped take everyone's mind off of what had happened on the surface.

The day ended with Leaf and Ash dragging themselves to bed, and the next day began with Ash jerking out of bed in response to a pounding at the door.

"Ash! Ash! I found a gym!"

"What?" Ash said, opening the door.

"There's an aspiring gym on third island! It's an ice type gym, but it only opened two weeks ago, which is why we haven't heard of it. It's at the Westwood Research Institute!"

Without delay, the two collected their pokeballs and headed out. Unfortunately they soon found that the Research Institute was on the other side of the ocean, with only a dirt road leading to the actual building.

As Ash and Leaf left the city in the direction of the Institute the two released their Pokemon—Ash for the first time since arriving on the island, given his fears over the Pokemon Fan Club's actions.

Tyche, Bacchus, Triton, Zeus, Eacus, Sparta, and Boreas all quickly coalesced on Ash's side, while Leaf's Sunkern Sunshine, Raticate Nibbles, Bibarel Chuck, Crobat Skylar, Tranquil Noble, and new Dunsparce did the same on Leaf's—she left her Gyarados Shimmer in her pokeball out of consideration for her size.

"What'd you name the Dunsparce?" Ash asked as they began to walk.

"Angel, for her little white wings." Leaf laughed, before pulling out her pokedex. "Alright, so, from what I can figure out about the gym, it's focus is on using the least amount of Pokemon possible. Their entry in the pokedex says that the badge you're given will have a number in the middle of it of how many Pokemon you needed before you defeated the leader—she has three Pokemon."

Ash nodded, contemplating his choices. "Who do you think you're going to use?"

"Well, unfortunately, a lot of my Pokemon are less than effective on Ice types. I'd use Angel, especially because she's already stronger than Noble and Shimmer, but I just got her, and she's not yet trained enough to be put into battle. I think Chuck is my best bet, and if he gets incapacitated then I'll use Nibbles. How about you?"

Ash hummed. Honestly, out of everyone on his team, Eacus was the most naturally prepared to fight an ice type, but he was also incredibly weak compared to the rest of the team. That didn't mean he had no options, though. In fact, one was rather obvious. "Probably—"

He was interrupted by a loud squawk as Boreas hopped in front of him, puffing out his chest.

"…You're a flying type, Boreas. I'm not using you."

Boreas squawked again, apparently unsatisfied with the answer.

"You. Are. A. Flying. Type. This is an ICE gym. I'm not using you." Ash repeated. Boreas fluffed his feathers, obviously not backing down, while Leaf snickered beside them. "Leaf's not using any of her flying types!" More squawking. More snickering from Leaf.

Ash sighed. He'd already decided to use Sparta as his main attacker, with Triton there if anything went wrong, and Gardevoir as his back-up's back-up (no point coming in unprepared), but he had no idea how to convince Boreas of this plan.

"Alright, fine." Ash finally said, trying to ignore Leaf's stifled laughter. "How about this? I won't send you out—don't give me that look—BUT, after the gym we'll go searching for a possible eighth member of our team and I'll let you be my main battler then."

The Staraptor huffed, obviously still displeased about the turn of events, but didn't argue, instead taking to the air in a rather obvious attempt to snub Ash.

Leaf was still snickering.

"Really?" Ash asked, exasperated. "Oh, and I'm sure you've had no problem with any of your Pokemon!"

She sniffed. "They've been perfect angels!" In front of her, Angel began to sniff at Chuck's butt, ignoring the Bibarel's attempts at swatting him off. "Well, except for Angel, but he's new."

"Really?" Ash asked again, this time a bit in disbelief. "All of your other Pokemon have had no problems whatsoever?"

It was a bit hard to believe. Out of Ash's own team, he'd already had to deal with mitigating Tyche's responses to his own emotional fluctuations and her habit of freezing under stress, Bacchus's increasingly aggressive nature, Boreas's severe case of inflated ego, Triton's need of water and desire to prove himself in the ocean, Zeus's habit of regularly letting out sparks whenever startled, and both Eacus's and Sparta's psychological damage from being owned by an abusive trainer.

All Pokemon had their little quirks, both biological and psychological, and the idea that Leaf's team didn't have any flaws from the get-go was… statistically unlikely.

Ash continued to stare at Leaf until she finally blushed and sighed. "Okay… so maybe there were some problems. But they're fixed now! It was just… a little, teeny, tiny bit difficult for my Raticate Nibbles and my Tranquil Noble to get along, what with, you know, one actually regularly eating the other in nature, and training Shimmer was hell—I mean, I'm super happy she evolved into a Gyarados, and everything, but honestly I have no idea how that happened—up until then her "training" had basically been going up in spars against the rest of my team and flopping around uselessly until I gave her a berry."

It was Ash's turn to snicker.

"Even the pokedex didn't have a clue!" Leaf laughed. "I mean, technically Shimmer knew tackle, but it was so weak that it was usually hard to see if it had even worked! I had no idea what to do!"

Ash was about to reply when a quack stopped him.

Immediately both teens' jaws snapped shut and they began eying the trees on either side of the path carefully.

Only one Pokemon made that sound: Psyduck.

Psyduck were, on the surface, both great and horrible Pokemon. Their evolution tended to be used pretty routinely in the Indigo League, even if their psychic moves were a bit underpowered for having clearly psychic-energy focused organs, but as Psyduck their propensity for being… encumbered... by debilitating headaches was often too much for many trainers to bother with—who wants a Pokemon that can only fight about a quarter of the time?

The real problem with Psyduck, however, was that they tended to amass in giant groups that would end up blocking up roads from travel—the record Psyduck group blocked travel for a mile in either direction.

So hearing one Psyduck wasn't a problem. It was when you heard—or saw—multiple duck Pokemon that you would have to start worrying about being closed in—after all, actually heading into the dense forest on the side of any path was never recommended due to the typically over-powered and often human-unfriendly Pokemon that resided there, and if two Psyduck clumps surrounded you you were basically stuck—they rarely reacted to outright attempts to attack them, and were frequently impossible to just brute through due to sheer number if nothing else.

Thankfully, after a few seconds it became clear that they wouldn't be hearing any more calls, and while they couldn't catch sight of the original Pokemon they couldn't see any others either, so they began walking again, if a bit more cautiously than before—there were stories of trainers who had been caught by Psyduck who ended up having to be treated for dehydration and starvation by the time they were found—and then there were the cases that made those trainers seem lucky.

Nonetheless the forest of Island Three was quiet as they continued, and before long they came across the massive Research Lab Leaf's research had told her about.

It stood at the edge of the cliff, half-facing the dirt road and half-facing the ocean itself. Dotted all around the cliffside scientists in white lab coats were writing on clipboards, each of them hovering over a resting or fishing Slowpoke.

An unembellished sign, posted just at the edge of the rocky shore, said "Gym Challengers This Way", and had an arrow pointing across the rocks to an unseen location.

Given the waves crashing along the shore Ash quickly returned Eacus and, after a couple second's thought, Zeus too (no point in risking electrocuting 20 or so scientists and Slowpoke, not to mention the many species he was sure were just off sure.

Leaf also seemed to think that discretion was the better part of valor, and returned her Dunsparce, who, it had quickly become apparent, had the habit of wandering straight up to anything remotely interesting and trying to sniff it—often headbutting rather hard in the process (Ash's shins would heal up just fine, and no one was really going to miss one or two trees in a forest, but there was no point in risking Angel trying to do the same to someone who might be… less understanding.)

After making sure their backpacks were leashed tightly to their torsos, and that their Pokemon knew to be careful, the two teams began to pick their way across the rocks.

"There are a lot of Slowpoke here." Leaf said, stepping over her third in as many strides.

"Yeah. I wonder why." Ash responded.

"Well, that's because this is the best fishing location in the entire island!" A researcher who had appeared from nowhere cut in. Without skipping a beat he began to walk alongside them, scribbling notes Ash couldn't hope to understand onto his clipboard as he continued to talk. "It's hit nearly all day with non-stop sunlight, which has led to an infusion of algae and plankton and the like, which has attracted Pokemon who eat them, who in turn attracted Pokemon who eat _them_ , and before long you've got a hotbed of all sorts of Pokemon near the surface, all of them biting everything that moves."

"Isn't that kind of dangerous?" Leaf asked, apparently caring significantly less than Ash that a random stranger had come up to them and begun talking without introducing himself.

"Oh, of course! Actually, that's part of why we think they evolve—we don't have all the research done yet, of course, but in ten to twelve years expect to have your mind blown!"

Ahead of them they'd finally rounded the cliff enough to see a double door on the side of the Research Lab and, more importantly, the sign right next to it—"Aspiring Ice Gym."

"Look, we'd love to continue to chat," Ash said, "but we're actually here to challenge the gym and—"

"Oh but of course!" The researcher interrupted. "Isn't the Gym lovely? There's only been a few challengers, of course, but I have high hopes. And it's ever so nice that the Elite Four's Lorelei's niece gave us such a large grant—and all we had to do was let her set up a gym!"

That was… unexpected.

Lorelei, the ice type Elite Four Member, was ridiculously well known. Hell, she may as well have been the Champion for a lot of girls. Unlike Agatha, who was too old to truly idolize, or Misty, who was too much of an unknown, or Erika or the former gym leaders the Sensational Sisters, who were considered to be pushovers, or Sabrina, who was quite frankly terrifying, Lorelei was the role model for female trainers all over Kanto.

And for good reason.

Despite specializing in a type which was often considered a bit weak attack-wise, Lorelei managed to fight her way into the elite four with amazing strategies, stunning gambits, and a ridiculously well trained team. In fact, she was well known for giving a few choice trainers in the Indigo Conference training tips—and they typically got at least twice as far the next year.

So going up against her niece was a bit more daunting than Ash had originally been prepared for. It occurred to him suddenly that no gym immediately became an official gym—all of them had first been aspiring, just like the one they were about to enter.

So what if the Gym Leader was actually as strong as Lt. Surge? Or, god forbid, Giovanni?

"Her niece?" Leaf asked.

"Oh, yes." The scientist said. "You may not know this, but Lorelei actually grew up in the Sevii Islands—Four Island, to be exact. Well, I guess her niece wanted to follow her footsteps. Must be pretty good to already be able to open up a gym, no?"

"Already?" Ash asked.

"Yep! Only got her first Pokemon what, seven years ago? But talent is talent, no matter the age. Mind, I've never actually seen her battle—that's not where my area of interest lies—but, I mean, what kind of Gym Leader wouldn't be excellent? So, are you going to go in?"

"Maybe in a bit." Leaf mumbled.

"Yeah… always good to get some last minute training in, and all that." Ash said.

"Okay! Well, I'm going back to my research. Have a fun time!"

Leaf and Ash, with their bemused Pokemon following behind, slowly made their way back across the rocky shore.

They stopped in a clearing between the forests and the cliffs.

"So… training?" Leaf asked.

"I'm sure waiting another couple hours, at least, just to get a strategy down, wouldn't hurt." Ash said. He pulled open his pokedex and began to rapidly flip through his saved battles. He knew that he had some of Lorelei's best fights downloaded, and hopefully that would give him some idea of how to fight her niece. Beside him Leaf did the same.

Even if it was an aspiring gym, there was no point being stupid.

Ash learned that lesson last time.


	25. The Westwood Research Institute

Ash watched Leaf's training out of the corner of his eye while he completed his.

In terms of his own team training was fairly straightforward—Triton, given that he wanted to fight in the ocean so badly, was placed in the middle of the group, while Tyche, Bacchus, Boreas, Sparta, and Zeus all did their best to wear him down. Occasionally he would make a sign behind Zeus's head, telling his other Pokemon to attack him. If the Luxio accidentally released electricity, he'd have to sit out five minutes (something Zeus, ever concerned with getting tougher, hated), but if he purposefully released an attack or didn't do anything he'd be allowed to stay in. Ash figured that if Zeus got used to being surprised first, they could teach him the correct reactions later.

The only one of his Pokemon not taking part in the melee was Eacus. In the weeks following his initial capture, the Houndour had had a rapid physical recovery, helped along by both Pokemon Center medical treatments and plenty of exercise. His strength, speed, and endurance had shot up too, to the point that Ash was fairly sure Eacus was now outdoing the average Houndour of his power level.

All that was left was improving Eacus's power, which was easier said than done.

Power levels—the official measuring stick by which a Pokemon's chance of winning, evolution, and even ability to learn moves…? They weren't nearly as clear as they were made out to be by school or the media. While it was ostensibly the amount of power a Pokemon was capable of exuding, but that was too hard to measure, so instead trainers used different references to understand their Pokemon's level. Most of it was guesswork, honestly—how the Pokemon's features were changing, what moves they knew, how well they did in battles… basically, in order to determine a Pokemon's power level so that you knew how good they were at battling or how close they were to evolving, you already had to know how good they were at battling and how close they were to evolving.

Nonetheless, it was a fairly good reference to use when comparing one Pokemon to another, and based on what Ash knew of Pokemon levels he felt fairly safe in saying that Tyche, Bacchus, Boreas, and Triton were all around the mid-30s, with Sparta right behind them and Zeus likely in the high 20s.

Eacus, on the other hand, was level 18 at most, and that was being incredibly generous. He was nowhere near evolving—his skull plate hadn't even begun to break apart to form a Houndoom's horns, and he still only had two outer ribs on his back. Given that the pokedex placed a Houndour's evolution at level 24, it wasn't even a matter of getting him to evolve. Any slight power increase would do wonders for Eacus's ability to last in battle, and Ash really wanted him to start professionally battling by the grass gym.

So Ash had set up a bit of an… ambitious obstacle course for Eacus to run. Using a combination of fallen trees at the end of the forest, the rocky beach, and even a few of the closer Slowpoke (all of whom could take any of Eacus's attacks without trying), he had Eacus run, jump, and crawl in a wide circle around the melee fight, firing off one attack after the other as he passed certain checkpoints in the course.

All in all, Ash figured, it was a fairly good training setup. Unfortunately, it looked like a cakewalk compared to Leaf's. If he had to guess, Ash would put her Sunkern, Raticate, Bibarel, and Crobat at very, very high 30s, with her newly caught Dunsparce barely lower. Out of her last two, Ash judged her Tranquil to be about the level of Zeus, and Shimmer, given that she was newly evolved, would almost definitely be ranked at level 20.

So her team was already notably better than his.

Her training, however, brought that to another level.

She had her Pokemon spar with disadvantages—no flying, with eyes closed, no using super effective moves… At the same time, Leaf would order all of her Pokemon to do odd things, a sort of twisted Simon Says—"jump up and down! Now everyone face the ocean! Now your nose has to touch the ground!" On top of that, whenever any of her Pokemon showed signs of tiring, she'd pull them out of their battle and heal them up a bit with potions, before making them run an obstacle course of her own—with the additional caveat that this course was to be taken backwards.

It was a strangely organized chaos, and it was beautiful to watch.

Both of them decided to stop at around eight, and after a brief, late dinner Ash decided to sit down and plan out a couple strategies for tomorrow's gym battle. Leaf, on the other hand, decided to go for a walk.

About an hour later, when it was becoming too dark for Ash to keep on scribbling in his notebook, the teen finally decided to figure out what, exactly, Leaf was doing.

She was, as it turned out, directly in front of him, talking to one of the researchers.

After packing away what little he still had out, Ash left his backpack in his tent and made his way across the cliff, trying to avoid stepping on any of the Slowpoke that seemed glued to various rocks.

Leaf and the researcher—a different one than the one they'd talked to earlier—this one was a middle aged woman who looked notably more put together. As he got closer Ash began to make out their conversation.

"—no, no, no—see, you'd think that, wouldn't you? But we're fairly sure the specimens here are actually _larger_ than average." The researcher was saying.

"Really? Why do you think that is?" Leaf asked.

"Well—oh, hello."

"Oh, this is my friend, Ash." Leaf said. "Ash, this is Dr. Pearson. She's one of the lead Slowpoke-line researchers."

"It's nice to meet you." Ash said.

"Likewise." Said Dr. Pearson. "As I was explaining to Leaf, while our main goal here is to understand Slowpoke's unusual evolution, we are also trying to consolidate more information on Slowpoke, Slowbro, and Slowking as a whole. Currently we're focused on the sizes of Slowpoke."

Ash and Leaf nodded in understanding.

"Pokemon size is determined by three main factors: in order of effect, they are genetics, age, and power. As you can see, the Slowpoke here are about the size of a soda cushion. The pokedex puts their 'height' as slightly higher, but as you know the initial heights and weights given in the pokedex are slightly inaccurate, to keep trainers from relying on them. However, we have come across evidence that the average Slowpoke is actually closer to the size of a pillow—up until recently, we'd assumed that ocean-based Slowpoke were more common, but our increased observation of this population has shown repeated evidence that despite their ocean-based way of evolving, these Slowpoke seemed to have immigrated from fresh water as they got stronger, which would make the smaller Johto freshwater Slowpoke the ones the average size should be based on."

"Um, the pokedex is wrong?" Ash asked. It was the first he'd heard of that, at least.

"You hadn't noticed anything off about it? For Mew's sake, it puts Ghastly's size as over four feet!" Leaf said.

"What you have to understand about the pokedex," Dr. Pearson interjected, "is that there are generally three ways information originally got placed in there: first, the original pokedex trainers often simply put the estimated height and weight of the first Pokemon of every species they saw. Second, if they could not find the Pokemon, they relied heavily on mythology and tall tales they heard at various towns. Third, and in particular this was true for their own Pokemon, it was found that many of them would intentionally input that species' size as smaller, so as to make their Pokemon seem in some way 'better' to the other users of the pokedex. In recent years, of course, we have been trying to switch out the more or less random heights and weights with scientifically accurate average ones, but even deciding that what counts as average is often extremely difficult."

"So you decided to go by…?"

"Well, until now our plan was to go with the Pokemon we found most common in nature, but given our new understanding of Slowpoke, and how and why their sizes vary over distance, we are starting to push Professors Oak and Westwood, as well as Dex Co., the producers of the pokedex, to have the pokedex scan a Pokemon's height and weight every time it is used, so that trainers have a better idea of both the average height and weight, as well as how that changes by area."

"That's… actually really cool." Ash said. The pokedex was pretty good with movesets, general nutrition information, and lore, but in terms of what he knew about how his Pokemon were supposed to behave he had mostly based his assumptions based off of what he had learned in school and watching battles on TV.

"Yeah," Leaf said, "I would definitely like more accurate information. But are you really going through it one Pokemon at a time?"

"So you see why we are pushing to use the pokedex scans so much." Dr. Pearson said. She gestured to the Slowpoke surrounding them. "We are getting plenty of information about their sizes, of course, but we're not going to move on to a new Pokemon until we feel we have sufficient information about their dietary and mating habits, evolutionary process, and genetic variation, which will likely take many decades—honestly, Pokemon scientists usually end up dedicating their lives to only one Pokemon line unless they're absolutely fantastic like Professor Oak, and there simply aren't enough scientists for even an eighth of the Pokemon families to be studied at a time, especially considering that generally a minimum of 50 researchers are needed to study a Pokemon at a time."

Ash, Leaf, and Dr. Pearson kept on talking for a while, with the latter two dominating the conversation—Leaf was heavily considering becoming a Pokemon researcher following her Indigo League run, but didn't know if she was okay with restricting herself to a single Pokemon to study. That said, by eleven both teens had returned to their campsite—they had a gym battle tomorrow, after all.

The next morning, after each teen had teleported back to the Pokemon center with the help of Tyche for one last medical check, Leaf and Ash finally entered the gym's doors.

Given that Leaf had gone first last time, it was Ash's turn.

"Fourth badge, here I come." He mumbled.

Unlike the previous Aspiring Gym, this one didn't even have an approximation of Gym Assistants. Instead you just went straight in.

The main arena was large—larger than Ash expected. It was half under water—the floor sloped somewhat, but the right wall seemed to end at the same floor height as the left wall, with the remaining space open to the ocean water. Ash could just make out the edge of metal bars at the bottom of the right wall—probably to keep any other Pokemon out.

The side where he entered, as well as the opposite wall, had a raised platform several feet above the rest of the floor. The other platform was completely empty with the exception of a door at one end and a simple folding chair, which was placed in the middle. On his side another folding chair leaned on the wall beside the door. Ash fingered Sparta's ball as he waited, but thankfully he didn't have to wait long—only a few seconds after he entered, the other door opened.

Out stepped two people: a man in stereotypical referee garb, and a woman.

The Gym Leader, Mia, looked as tall as Lorelei, and shared many of her facial features, but her hair was a notably lighter red. She nodded at Ash.

"You're trying for your fourth gym, and all of your other badges are from official gyms, so I'll assume you know the standard rules. At my gym, however, things are run a bit differently. I'll release my Cloyster and you'll release up to eight—you can even release them at the same time, which I highly recommend, given that you're only on your fourth gym. I'd recommend three or four, actually, but it's up to you. The battle will end only if I return my Cloyster, eight of your Pokemon feint, or you forfeit. You can begin whenever you're ready."

With that she released her monster of a Cloyster. It looked about five feet tall, and laughed the second it was released. Its shell had clear scrapes from past battles. The very first thing it did was to begin spitting out spikes all over the arena. Some were forebodingly hissing—almost definitely toxic spikes.

Ash grimaced, but he knew he had to act fast, before the Cloyster had any longer to set up. Thankfully, Ash had already planned out Sparta's starting moves. With the click of a button, Ash released his Hitmonlee.

Sparta didn't take more than a second to assess the situation before bursting into action. He darted forward, avoiding as many of the spikes as possible, before smacking the Cloyster in its face—Fake Out. Without hesitating he darted back, quickly performing Bulk Up and Focus Energy before unleashing his first move: High Jump Kick. It hit, and the Cloyster flew into the wall. But before Ash had time to call out his first non-prepared order, the Cloyster jumped into action. First a dark surge slammed into Sparta— _Torment,_ Ash thought, _a TM_ —before flashing around the arena as quickly as possible— _Double Team_ —and following it up quickly with a rumbling burst that forced a large ominous cloud to form over the arena— _Hail._ Across the room Mia leaned back in her chair—she seemed to be ordering her Cloyster through a series of whistles.

"Bulk Up again, Sparta," Ash whispered, "then double kick." While he'd loved the damage from High Jump Kick, the additional risk of injury was too high for him to risk it, especially given how much damage Sparta was taking by just being in the arena. After the failure of the last gym, he really wanted to see if he could win with only one Pokemon.

The Cloyster just laughed, closing its eyes.

"Damn it—rest!" Ash muttered. He'd guarantee that the Cloyster also had a Chesto berry—you were allowed to bring no more than one berry into battle, and many Pokemon could be trained to keep one in their mouth and not eat them unless under certain circumstances—like sleep, for instance.

There was nothing for it; if he wanted to be sure of victory, he'd have to put another Pokemon in.

Without a moment's pause he released Triton, shouting "rain dance!" to Sparta at the same time. The second his Seadra coalesced on the field, he followed it up by shouting "Combo!"—he wasn't particularly worried about Mia knowing he was getting rid of the hail and providing a benefit to his Seadra, and there was no way she'd know what Triton's combo is.

By the time Sparta had gotten the rain dance off, however, the Cloyster had woken up, and as Triton sprung into action, flinging first a Twister then a Smokescreen at its opponent, the opponent fired back: a Hydro Pump, aimed directly at Sparta.

"Dodge!" Ash shouted, but it was too late. His Hitmonlee was down. Quickly returning the fighting type, Ash focused on Triton, who was finishing his combo with a quick Focus Energy, followed immediately by a Brine. It did almost nothing.

Ash grit his teeth and assessed the situation—He had already had one Pokemon feint, and was on his second. If Triton began to have too much trouble he'd bring in Tyche, but so far the Seadra wasn't doing too badly—he was especially helped by having the ability Poison Point, which, while it didn't prevent him from being poisoned, did make it more difficult.

In the arena Triton unleashed his combo again while simultaneously dodging the Cloyster's own counter attack—Spike Cannon.

Ash drummed his fingers as he tried to figure out what to do. He had no doubt that the Cloyster would attempt to Hail again soon, and there was nothing he could do to stop it, but right now Triton's combo was taking too—

Below him Triton was hit head on by one spike, then two, then three.

But only three.

"Shit—Shell Armor." Ash muttered. It was that or Overcoat, but Shell Armor was much more common—almost as common as Skill Link, in fact. And while Skill Link was, according to the battles Ash had watched, considered the superior ability, given that it allowed its possessor to fire off multiple-attack moves with more speed and accuracy, for him Shell Armor was the more dangerous ability: Triton's combo, after all, relied heavily on critical hits.

"Stop Focusing, Triton." Ash whispered. "Twister, Smokescreen, then Brine. Speed is key."

Triton squealed in acknowledgement, before darting back into the smoke. By now over 60% of the Arena was at the very least foggy, and while the remnants of his own energy that continued to lace the smoke kept Triton aware of his surroundings, the same could not be said for Cloyster. Across the room Mia whistled sharply. There was a rumble, and hail overtook the arena once more.

At this point it was a battle of accuracy vs set-ups. The only reason that Triton hadn't been taken out yet was because of the sheer number of Smokescreens that he'd put up, as well as Sparta getting rid of the Cloyster's Chesto Berry, but at the end of the day the Ice/Water type was probably around its mid-50s in level, and that was dangerously high for Ash to compete with.

Mia whistled again.

Another round of Spike Cannons missed.

But that didn't mean that Triton could rest easy. The Spike Cannons which had hit placed him at what Ash guessed was about half of what he could take before feinting, and while he'd already figured out where the spikes, both toxic and normal, were, it was too late for him to not take some damage and end up mildly poisoned. Ash had to end this soon.

Mia's whistle pierced the air again—a different one than last time—but Ash had an idea.

"Underwater," Ash whispered, "then Brine and dodge. That's it."

The smoke had begun to spread, and by now both side's Pokemon were lost in the grey fog. Ash looked across the room instead of down, and frowned. Mia was sitting in the folding chair, tilted back so that only two of the legs were on the floor, and she looked half-awake if anything. Ash understood that she was probably taking it easy on him—no matter how you sliced it, a level 55ish Pokemon could do some real damage to a Pokemon more than 10 levels weaker than it—but her blasé nature still irked him.

Flashes could occasionally be seen in the fog below, but both Pokemon were otherwise very quiet, not wanting to notify the other of their location. Likewise, both trainers kept quiet—their strategies had already been put into place, and now it was simply a waiting game.

Ash made a mental note to start training his team how to use berries in battle—he'd be feeling much more confident right now if he knew Triton had a Sitrus berry on him.

The flashes stopped.

Mia stood up, walking a couple steps forward and leaning over the edge like Ash had.

The hail dissipated.

And slowly, the smoke did too—being carefully drawn in through a very much conscious Seadra's snout.

"And the winner is the challenger Ash Ketchum! With only two Pokemon!"

As she returned her Pokemon, Mia called across the arena.

"Not bad. Give me 15 minutes to recover my Cloyster, and then you can send your friend in. Your badge will be ready in about half an hour—my gym guide will give it to you."

Ash nodded in understanding, returning Triton himself, before walking out. All told, the entire battle had taken about 20 minutes, but he wanted to get Sparta—and Triton—healed up as soon as possible.

But there was a problem.

When he walked into the waiting room, Leaf wasn't there.

"Hi have you—I'm looking for—her name is Leaf—" Ash darted across the rocky beach, questioning every researcher he'd come across, but most didn't even look up, and those who did had no idea who he was talking about. Where had she gone?

It was only when he arrived back at the campsite that he got his first clue—a shouted order from the woods for a Pokemon to use protect, just in range of his hearing.

Ash grabbed Tyche's ball and dashed into the forest.

"—Damn it!"

"Leaf?"

Leaf looked up at him from her position in the middle of the path, facing about 15 Psyduck waddling furiously away.

"Oh, hi Ash."

"What's wrong?"

"Wrong? Nothings—oh, you mean—" Leaf sighed and picked up a Pokeball from the ground. "I decided to get in some last-last minute training, you know, given that your battle was taking so long, and I went into the woods, you know, for a change of pace, and I ran into some Psyduck who were beginning to gather. And I figured if I acted fast enough I could stop them from actually, you know, blocking the path, but while I was battling them one of them stuck behind me, and I guess now I have a Psyduck."

"…don't you want a Psyduck? I mean, it kind of fits your MO, right?"

"Well, sure, but… I don't actually, you know, like Psyduck." Leaf said, turning back to the Westwood Research Institute.

"…then release it." Ash said.

"I can't! I'd feel… guilty. And it's not like I hate them, or anything, I just… I dunno. I don't like them. But that's not particularly fair, is it? After all, I'm trying to prove that all Pokemon deserve respect, and treating this Psyduck unfairly just because of its species does go against my 'MO', as you put it."

Ash shifted uneasily. Honestly, if the same thing had happened to him, he'd have released it in a heartbeat—you were allowed to release any caught Pokemon within the first month without penalty, so long as it was near where you captured them, because it was believed that they hadn't been domesticated yet, and honestly Ash had no desire whatsoever to train a Pokemon whose most well-known quality was literally _constant crippling headaches_ , but to each their own he guessed.

"Oh, I'm so sorry—did you win?" Leaf asked, finally looking up from her newly in-use ball.

Ash grinned. "Yeah. I was pretty hard, but I managed to only use two Pokemon. She said she'd be ready in fifteen minutes, so I bet by the time we get back you can head straight in—none of your Pokemon are too damaged, right?"

"Nope. Skylar took care of most of the Psyduck, and because she's part flying type, I wasn't going to use her anyway—she's a great Crobat and everything, but even she wouldn't be able to fully overcome a powerful ice type. How strong is her Cloyster, anyway?"

"Oh, I'd easily put it in it's mid-50s, power level wise. I'm not going to tell you its move set, though—that you get to figure out all on your own." Ash said. Leaf laughed.

After seeing her inside, Ash quickly teleported back to the Pokemon center, where he deposited Triton and Sparta. After a light lunch and picking up his Pokemon again, he got Tyche to bring him back to the beach to pick up his badge—a simple circle with the number two in the middle.

Finally, Ash returned to the campsite, turned on the radio, and released his team. It was time for a celebration.

A couple minutes later the pseudo-party was in full swing—Tyche was twirling around in a blur of white and green, Bacchus was leaping up disturbingly high heights, Boreas was having fun doing acrobatic tricks around the hopping Breloom, and Triton was bouncing up and down beside a wrestling Zeus and Eacus. But Ash couldn't help but focus on Sparta, who sat awkwardly to one side of the campsite.

The Hitmonlee, it suddenly dawned on Ash, thought he'd done a bad job.

"Hey Sparta," Ash said. He rubbed the top of the Hitmonlee's head, which the pokedex said was very comfortable for the entire hitmon line. "You know you did a good job, right?"

Sparta grunted.

"You did. Two high jump kicks would've knocked it out, but even you can't do anything about increased inaccuracy, and you know missing that move can hurt you a lot—I wasn't willing to take that risk. That said, because of you the Cloyster's Chesto berry was used, and you even managed to temporarily get rid of the hail. Trust me, given how close Triton was to losing, your actions were wholly necessary for me to get this badge."

The Hitmonlee shifted uncertainly, but finally grunted in acknowledgement. He stared at Ash for a few seconds, before slamming his hands together—a sign of appreciation, from what Ash understood. He nodded and smiled, mimicking the gesture himself.

Less than two minutes later a greenish blur came barreling across the rocks—

"I won! I won!" Leaf shouted. "It took three Pokemon—Nibbles, Chuck, and Shimmer—but I did it!"

"Great!" Ash said. "Now I'm still a badge behind!"

Leaf laughed. "Looks like you'll still be playing catch up! But I have some even better news! I asked the gym guide, and he said he'd gotten a radio call that the Seagallop Ferry will be departing from Porta Vista tomorrow!"

"Oh, thank Arceus!" Ash said, only a little dramatically—he was _so_ ready to be back on the mainland.


	26. The Trouble with Jynx

The mainland would have to wait. (Of course it would, it's not like anything would ever go as planned.)

Unfortunately, while the route the Seagallop Ferry took to go back to Vermillion was fairly direct, it did have one two day stop: Maiden's Peak. The city's main attraction was its Summer's End Festival, which ran from September 5th to October 5th and whose sole purpose was to extend the tourist season (the only time when the Seagallop Ferry would bother to stop at the small island), and as it was October 4th, Leaf and Ash were on the last stop of the season.

Although, to say that the fair's sole point was tourism wasn't entirely true—the residents of Maiden's Peak said that the purpose of the Festival was to remember the story of the Maiden. It was said that the woman, Alcyone, loved her husband Ceyx so much that when her lover had to travel the sea she stood faithfully waiting on the cliffs for any sign of his return, until at last a benevolent Slowking sent her a vision of his death. As the myth went, she had received that vision just as the weather had turned cold and, in her grief, refused to leave her cliff at all, even to sleep or eat, and so froze to death, still standing, still waiting, until the inscrutable Arceus decided to take pity on her, removing her soul from her body and turning it into the first Altaria and sending her across the sea to where her husband, also transformed, was waiting, and leaving only her physical body behind, now so frozen it had turned to stone.

Which was an interesting enough story, and Ash guessed that basing a festival around it was fine, but at the same time?

The festival was blatantly to extend the tourist season. And as it was so late into the fall, even the festival wasn't enough to keep the town particularly filled.

That said, the time Ash and Leaf spent wandering around the city was… decent, actually. There were many, many carnival games and interesting foods and art exhibits, and most of the stores had some number of discounted products, and the two spent a fair bit of time acting like little kids by getting a sugar high off of Cottonee candy and playing tag while doing a terrible job of not bumping into people. (The other tourists were noticeably less appreciative of their good mood, but a few bumps and bruises never hurt anyone, and it wasn't like he and Leaf could have _not_ had a parkour race competition across town—there were just way too many fences to resist.)

Honestly, though, the most interesting part of Maiden's Peak was the peak itself. Or, more accurately, the giant chain link fence that blocked it from the town and had giant signs attached to it every few meters: No Trespassing. Entry Barred.

The thing was, having an area that wasn't accessible to the general public was actually fairly common—not only was about 50% of Kanto flat out closed off for environmental reasons (to preserve certain populations, to keep people from getting hurt in areas with too many natural disasters, or because the place had already been over colonized years ago and a decision had been made to return the land to the wild), and even more land was restricted to only trainers with a certain number of badges.

The reason Maiden's Peak was barred? Neither of those, nor the less common 'historical landmark', which Ash could honestly see as a successful argument.

Nope, Ash wasn't allowed in the peak because of now long dead Jynx.

Nearly every Kanto city had its own plague of some sort of Pokemon that, at least for its residents, did more harm than good—Pallet Town had the Spearow Swarms, Porta Vista the Hypno population, even Celadon had a pretty severe Grimer population. Maiden's Peak? It had had its Jynx.

The Peak itself had once held the entire town, but as the Jynx had moved in from the mountains the population had been pushed downward, eventually landing where they were today and only the (then recent) influx of trainers had kept the ice types at bay.

That said, by all accounts the Jynx even then were more than weak enough for Ash's Pokemon to currently go against, and, on top of that, there actually weren't any that were known to still be on the island—several decades ago owning a Jynx had been a popular fad, and both legal trainers and illegal thieves had ensured that the population on Maiden's Peak had disappeared.

So why wasn't Ash allowed to go Pokemon hunting in the one part of the island that still had wild Pokemon?

Because, apparently, the Maiden's Peak residents had decided that due to the trouble Jynx had caused in the past, there was absolutely no way that _any_ trainer, regardless of their experience or badge count, should be allowed onto the peak.

Which. Was. Insane!

"I _really_ want to go past that fence."

"Really? Didn't we just have a conversation about avoiding dangerous things?" Leaf said as she stood next to Ash staring up at the mountain from behind the large "No Trespassing" gate.

"It'll be fine. I mean, our Pokémon are definitely strong enough to go against any of the Pokemon in there, don't you think?"

Leaf sighed. "That's not the point. Going into a restricted area is _illegal_. Even though we think there are no more Jynx, Maiden's Peak's police really don't want to risk it."

"Well, I have Eacus. I can just have him walk beside us" Ash said. It wasn't the best argument, he knew, and certainly not one he believed would be relevant, but he'd seen the Indigo Championship battles where a dark type had been brought out against a psychic—to say it crippled them would be an understatement.

"That wasn't really the main part of my argument, Ash."

"What if we get permission from the police?"

"Are you going to willingly go into a police station?" Leaf asked. Ash may have mentioned his Cerulean promise to her.

"Maybe we can find a police officer not in the police station. One who is, like, sane."

"What, and they're just going to make an exception for you because you're so suave and charismatic?" Wow, heavy on the sarcasm. It wasn't that unlikely, was it?

"Come on, isn't it worth a shot?" Ash asked. It was _really_ irritating him that he wasn't allowed into the wilderness of an island solely because people hundreds of years ago weren't able to deal with a Pokemon he knew he'd have no trouble with, and which _weren't even there anymore_ anyway!

"It's already seven! And we're leaving at ten tomorrow!" Leaf said.

"Please?" Ash asked. Honestly, at this point he knew he was doing this with or without her, but it'd be nice to have the company.

"Fine." She did not look pleased, but gestured back to the town regardless, telling Ash to lead the way.

It didn't take them long to find an Officer Jenny, but it took them significantly longer to find an Officer who was not a Jenny (call Ash prejudiced, but being literally interrogated just because he'd gone to the police station to report suspicious behavior a few cities ago had already had him on edge, and having the first Officer Jenny they saw here dragging a man and a woman to the police station to turn in a penny they'd found lying on the ground meant that he'd quickly discounted any of the others that worked on the island.)

Eventually, though, they came across an Officer Grace, who said no.

Which was irritating.

So they asked Officer Joe. Who said no.

Which was frustrating.

So they asked Officer David. Who said no.

Which was infuriating.

At which point Leaf began to argue that they'd sunk enough time into the attempt, and shouldn't they just go back to the Pokemon Center until morning, but Ash was committed now, and bugged Officer David until, at last, the poor man simply gave up and gave them permission.

To go no more than one kilometer behind the fence.

Because reasons. (Maybe Ash had annoyed him too much, but at the same time if he hadn't then he'd have not been able to spend any time behind the fence at all, so, you know, priorities.)

The peak was more overgrown than Ash was expecting, and it did not take long for him to be, in a word, thrilled that Leaf had come along.

"Chuck, keep on Cutting! Remember, as straight a path as possible!"

The Bibarel moved steadily ahead of Ash, Leaf, and Eacus, carving a path through the forest. It was already nearing midnight and the trainers had only managed to get half a mile past the fence—they still had at least a quarter of a mile to go before they even began to climb the peak, which was Ash's goal, even if it was technically just out of reach of what he had gotten permission to do. Thankfully, their habit of sleeping on the ship had left both with sufficient energy, but Ash had really wanted to move at least a little quicker than the pace they'd actually had to take.

That said, despite the slow progress in terms of distance, in other ways the trip had been just as useful as Ash had hoped.

Regardless of Ash' and Leaf's own trouble fighting their way through the foliage, the native inhabitants of the island had no such trouble: hoards of Zubat, wandering Seel, and even hovering Chingling would attack them, sometimes alone and sometimes all at once, constantly keeping the group on edge.

Through this, as well as Leaf's own Pokemon helping out, Eacus managed to hit well above his level, and was very quickly adapting new fighting stances and instincts—taking all of the information he got from any fight he took part in and immediately testing what he learned in his next battle.

While he was far from perfect, and his new ideas nearly always failed, that did not stop him from steadily improving.

On top of that, Ash also took the chance to knock Boreas down a few pegs: while on Three Island he'd promised the Staraptor solely when he searched for his eighth partner, so any time he and Leaf came across a Pokemon that was notably stronger than average or that Eacus was particularly weak to? Ash released Boreas.

A four foot tall bird with an eight foot wing span, as it turns out, did not do well in a forest where trees were an average of only two feet apart.

Boreas got beat down. Repeatedly.

Thankfully, Leaf's Pokemon were able to bail him out time and time again. (If they weren't Ash wouldn't have risked it.)

So, despite walking a distance that was about the equivalent of four city blocks, Ash still felt very accomplished.

And Leaf, for all of her initial reticence, was also fairly happy with the turn of events: forests really only got to be this impenetrable when they were in some way restricted, which meant that it was by far the most wild place she'd ever been in: in the two hours since they'd entered she had yet to stop taking pictures and making notes in her pokedex about every Pokemon they'd come across and how much they'd differed from the ones that lived in trainer-accessible environments: their lack of fear, their increased amount of inter-Pokemon fighting, their far more varying sizes…

She was definitely going to end up being a researcher.

As they squeezed their way into another clearing, however, Ash's thoughts suddenly shifted focus. Since entering the forest both he and Leaf had been developing a minor headache, to the point where they'd each taken a couple hundred milligrams of pain pills, but his mind suddenly felt clear—perhaps the medication had finally taken effect.

Thankfully, his now clear mind allowed him to realize that he was being an idiot—his priorities, up until now, were all wrong.

How in the world had he made it to fifteen without being kissed? He may as well have been living half a life. That had to change. He bet—

What was that? Up ahead?

It was… a woman? It was! Wow, even at this distance he could tell she was beautiful. She would be the perfect person to get his first kiss from, if only he could reach her.

He took off, knowing with an increasing sense of urgency that he'd put off getting kissed for too long, but beside him Leaf surged forward too, darting in front of him with more agility than he was capable of.

He grimaced—what if the woman was only willing to kiss one of them?—and tried to run ever quicker, but when she remained ahead of him he grabbed a rock and threw it at her. There was no way that she was going to get the kiss— _it was his_.

He was vaguely aware of the bark and branches scraping his arms and legs, and he thought he could hear the barking of… something… too, but it was far more important to get to the woman. She was closer now, and her exquisiteness was so clear, so obvious—he'd never be able to meet someone more beautiful than she, and if this was his only chance to get a kiss from her than he was going to do it. He grabbed another rock, managing to hit Leaf this time, and she screamed, but kept running, even managing to through a rock back at him.

"She's mine!" The girl who could not hope to match the woman's perfection shouted. "Mine!"

Ash opened his mouth to shout back, but he was violently shoved aside by a Bibarel, who was barreling forward as well. The barking—he bet that was another suitor, and he could tell it was hot on his heels! Well, he'd run even faster, just watch! He was getting that ki—

A root that Ash hadn't noticed slammed into his ankle, toppling him over. He screamed, furious that the girl, the Bibarel, and the other suitor would all beat him, but to his surprise the barker didn't run ahead, instead coming to a stop directly next to Ash. He snapped at the Pokemon—clearly a Houndour, trying to scare him off. Maybe if he got rid of this suitor than the beautiful woman would be willing to kiss him as well as the girl and Bibarel. Unfortunately, the Houndour didn't move, instead opening its maw and Roaring directly in Ash's face. Ash tried to tackle the beast to get him out of the way, but it refused to move, instead roaring again.

Ash's ears were ringing now, unable to withstand the aural assault, but the Houndour _just wouldn't stop why wouldn't he stop this hurt so much make him stop make him stop make him—_

 _make—_

Ash held his head in his hands, trying desperately to shut up the noise as the piercing pain in his head grew stronger and stronger, until his eyes suddenly snapped open.

"Jynx.

Eacus—Eacus! Stop, I'm, I'm here now, I'm back to being myself." The dark/fire type whimpered, but backed off.

Ash's head was killing him, the mixture of ringing in his ears and head-splitting migraine making it hard for him to keep his eyes open, much less move, but he forced himself to get to his feet. As much as he wanted to curl up into a ball, he had to save Leaf and Chuck first—and probably find somewhere safer than the middle of the forest to pass out in too.

"Eacus… Eacus, run ahead. Try to do the same thing to Leaf that you did to me. I'll be right behind you." The dark type barked once, then took off, and Ash, true to his word, began to straggle behind his fast moving Pokemon.

He debated releasing another Pokemon—Tyche, perhaps?—but he didn't want any of his other Pokemon to fall under the Jynx's power.

Instead he rifled around his backpack until he found a few canisters of Poke-repellent—he hadn't really found a reason to use it before now, so he'd only bought three, but thankfully that also meant that all three were completely full. He sprayed the stinky stuff all over himself, before putting all but one of the cans back into the weightless container he'd pulled them from. He kept the other in his hand, to reapply as necessary.

He also choked down some migraine medicine. He didn't know if that meant that the Jynx would be able to draw him in again, but at this point he was barely functional so it was a necessary risk.

He continued to stumble after Eacus's trail as he did, forcing himself through small gaps between trees and bushes. He knew he could take a longer route by following the native Pokemon's natural paths, but he hadn't thought about that when he was under Jynx's spell which meant Leaf hadn't either—she'd have followed the straightest path too.

It took a few minutes, but eventually he could once more hear barking ahead. He forced himself to move faster.

"Leaf! Leaf!"

"…Ash? Oh my god, Ash! Are you okay?" Leaf said.

"Yeah, Eacus got to me first. How about you?"

"Snapped me out of it, too—have you seen Chuck?"

Ash frowned, and Eacus sniffed around the immediate vicinity, but there was no sign.

"Chuck!" Leaf screamed.

Ash followed Leaf through the forest with Eacus by his side. She'd released her Crobat the second she was sure that Chuck was still chasing the Jynx, more concerned with her missing partner than another falling under the Jynx's spell, and thankfully Skylar had not shown any effect of madness, instead immediately taking to the air and following Leaf's order to search for the Bibarel or Jynx that were both in the woods.

The four of them, however, weren't having much luck. Besides the noise of the Chingling and occasional barking from Seel the forest was going quieter, its residents going to sleep. Unfortunately, this wasn't much help—Ash had used his Pokedex to check Jynx's cry, but unfortunately the database informed him that they were generally quite silent Pokémon. Bibarel, too, were known for chittering quietly rather than making any louds squeals or barks. So, basically, the darkness and denseness of the forest meant that visually searching was difficult. The silence of the two they were tracking ruled out auditory detection. Eacus, who had the best nose of the group, hadn't been able to pick up anything, which crossed olfactory sensing of the list. All that was left was a general understanding of the direction they had been heading and luck.

Despite all that, however, Ash said nothing as the last residents of the forest went quiet, as October 4th changed into October 5th. He knew that if it had been his Pokémon, if, for instance, he'd had Boreas out at the time that the Jynx took hold of them, then he'd be searching just as hard, be just as unwilling to give up.

He'd turned on his flashlight long ago, and now slowed, shining the light this way and that. He knew that when he'd been going afer the Jynx he'd not bothered to avoid the sticks and leaves in his path. If he could just find some sign of-

"Leaf! Over here!"

"What?" She shouted, running toward him from her position about five feet to the left.

"I think I found Chuck's path—look." He pointed out the broken twigs he'd noticed, shining his flashlight ahead.

"Let's go." Leaf said, she started down the path, then hesitated, looking back to where Ash was following. "Thanks." She said, before running ahead once more.

Ash frowned, pushing himself even more. The thanks was nice, he guessed, but all it did was remind him that if they didn't hurry then all he'd have done was pointed out a path to a dead body.

And that was unacceptable.


	27. Tragedy and Distraction

The Jynx almost had Chuck entirely inside her cave by the time Leaf and Ash found her. The second she came into reach Leaf released all her Pokémon at once, filling the small clearing in front of them and blacking out what little light came from the moon and stars with the massive body of Shimmer.

"Get her!" Leaf screamed. Ash hesitated, but after a second he released his whole team too. He was worried about them being enthralled, yes, but saving Chuck was much more important.

The sheer number of Pokémon, however, initially worked to their detriment. The flurry of wings, legs, and tails made it impossible for any of the Pokémon to possibly safely aim, but it was equally unclear to the trainers who to recall. The Jynx had no such trouble—it only took a few seconds for her to whip up an Avalanche, which crashed into the only Pokémon who had managed to get near her—Tyche, Zeus, Skylar, Noble, and Nibbles, as well as Chuck were slammed by the mountain of ice, but none of them backed down—they all understood the gravity of the situation; despite just being knocked over, Chuck was still determinately marching into the cave, completely prepared to be the Jynx's next meal.

Ash and Leaf screamed orders, but with the sheer number of Pokémon to command, most went unheard. That said, Ash had a plan. He caught Eacus's attention and gestured wildly at Chuck. If he managed to sneak under the Jynx's radar, then he might be able to snap Chuck out of it, and all of them could run back the way they came. In order to help that happen, Ash made sure to call out for his Pokémon to use their flashiest moves—he had Tyche use Magical Leaf, because it would obscure more of the Jynx's vision, and by the same reasoning he pushed Bacchus to use all of his Spores and Powders. He had Boreas using Mud Slap, because honestly someone should be using a specifically damaging move, and after he finally got Zeus's attention he ordered him to use Mud Slap too, and with Sparta having used Bullet Punch from the beginning that meant that the damage being done by his team was far from insubstantial. Triton, on the other hand, he had using Water Pulse specifically because it could confuse the opponent, and Ash hoped that if the Jynx was confused she'd lose her control of Chuck too. After a couple seconds he grabbed Tyche's attention, too, and had her shift to using Confusion as well.

Leaf was doing much the same thing, but focusing on damage more than status or distraction—Ash figured she didn't have much room in her thoughts for anything else. Slowly but surely, between Avalanches, Blizzards, and Body Slams, they began to wear the Ice/Psychic type down. It was taking longer than Ash would have liked though; by most Researcher's and historian's estimations, the last known Jynx on the island were only slightly more powerful than his Pokémon were now, and they certainly hadn't been strong enough to ensnare multiple Pokémon and people at the same time—much less whip up a Blizzard like it was nothing.

Ash grit his teeth, eyes darting around the battle. Most nearby trees had been torn down from the fighting already, and half of the cave entrance had been crashed by a particularly powerful Tackle from Shimmer (she may have been a new, and relatively small, Gyarados, with little to no moves, but she was strong nonetheless.)

While all of the rampant damage and attacks were unable to completely stop the Jynx, however, it had accomplished its secondary goal—the Jynx had had Chuck keep on wandering into the cave until well after they'd lost sight of him, but that had allowed to Eacus to slink through the shadows right into the cave while the Jynx was dealing with the attacks from every other angle. Ash tried no to look in that direction, though—there was no telling how long it would take for Eacus to find Chuck, much less snap him out of it, and they absolutely needed to avoid Jynx figuring out that they had gotten around her to her one remaining meal.

Ash flinched as he saw Boreas falter, then fall to the ground. He pulled out his pokeball to return him, but the Flying/Normal type cawed angrily and forced himself back into the air, dodging out of the return laser. A number of his Pokémon were near fainting, actually, but not one of them let him return them. Leaf's own weren't doing much better—Ash itched to return her Crobat, who had taken the brunt of the damage, out of the field himself, but as long as Skylar kept flying he knew she wouldn't.

The Jynx let of another Avalanche.

Then, just as all of the Pokémon turned their attention to dodging the worst of the ice, the Jynx attacked again—a full Body Slam, directly on Nibbles.

The Raticate went down.

He did not get up.

"Nibbles!" Leaf screamed. She desperately pressed Nibbles' pokeball button over and over again, but while the resulting laser hit the Normal type, it never returned him, leaving his body lying on the ground. Ash bellowed in rage himself. His adrenaline had built to the point where he could barely stand still, but there was nothing he could do, nothing more than what was already being done. "Give it all you got!" He finally shouted. "Damage only! Get that Jynx down!"

All remaining Pokémon pushed forward, throwing their best moves at Nibbles' killer, and she obviously felt the impact, stumbling back from the force. But she didn't fall. Instead, she rose her arms- a sign that another Blizzard was about to come their way. The Pokémon in front of her fled, knowing better than to be anywhere near the attack when it went off, and even Leaf and Ash, from their positions nearly 50 meters away, took a few steps back, but before the Jynx could start she screamed.

A dark black mass with equally black energy visibly rolling off of it slammed into Jynx. The mass didn't stop just once, though—it rammed into the Ice/Psychic type was hit one, two, six times before the mass finally came to a stop, slowing down enough in the middle of the wreckage to be clearly identified as Eacus. The Dark/Fire type stood resolutely between Nibbles and Jynx, growling a challenge despite the clear imbalance of power. The Jynx rose her arms again, apparently undaunted by the now noticeable damage to her left flank, but, again, before she could unleash her new attack she was stopped, this time by one of Nibbles' own teammates: Chuck.

The mass of damage, of status effects, of exhaustion finally took their toll on the Ice/Psychic type; she tried, once more, to start another Blizzard, but only a second or two after she stumbled and, while everyone else held their breath, fell, fainted, to the ground.

The next few hours were... hazy for Ash. He didn't remember getting out of the woods at all, didn't remember stumbling to the Pokémon Center or giving his report to the Police about why, exactly, he'd showed up with scratches and bruises and mild hypothermia several hours after he'd been expected to come back.

He vaguely remembered a doctor telling him about shock, handing him pamphlets to help him with symptoms from both the Jynx's attack and grief. He did remember, if hazily, lying in a giant bed—not the one he'd originally checked into, but certainly one in the Pokémon Center—with his Pokémon napping lazily around him.

His memory came into clarity about halfway through his conversation with his mother. It was his third phone call of the day—his first had been with a psychologist they'd contacted, who he now had daily meetings with, which were to be completed with his brand new Pokegear, the result of his second phone call with Professor Oak.

His mother's call took the longest, though. She wanted him to come home, and for the first time he was genuinely thinking about it. This was his second death in as many months, and unlike the last this time he actually knew the victim. Leaf was going back, of course. She had sat across the video chat room from him, and while he couldn't hear much of what was said, he was able to parse out that Leaf was putting her journey on hold, at least temporarily.

But Ash... it wasn't even that he knew he needed a break. Regardless of whether or not he did decide to go on, he'd certainly not be heading straight for the next gym when he got back on the mainland. Still, he wasn't sure if it would be the best thing to go home. Seeing his mother would help, yes, but Pallet Town had always felt stifling to him, had always created in him an itch to go out, explore, go somewhere where every house, tree, and street looked and felt exactly the same. Ash? He got peace, from nature, from newness, from feeling as if he was on the precipice of something great.

In the end, between them, he and his mom decided that rather than paying an Ace Trainer to teleport him all the way home, he'd instead take his break in a different way: just outside Vermillion the annual Butterfree migration was about to happen, and, according to Vermillion's city website, it was free and in nature and beautiful and calming. That decided, and after Nurse Joy's assistant Sean helped him pack, he and Leaf were placed back on the Seagallop, out of the way of the hectic group of vacationers and part time residents of Maiden's Peak who wanted to get out on the last regular ferry of the year.

In other words, they were sat at the very back of the inner cabin of the ship.

Ash fiddled with his new Pokegear as he waited for the ferry to take off. It was a wonderful device, really—new apps were coming out almost every month, and while it didn't originally have much more than a phone, now the basic model (the one he had been given) came equipped with not only a phone, but also text messaging, a basic calculator, a pedometer, and a very rudimentary GPS system, all of which he could buy improved versions of if he wished.

"Did, um, did you get one?" Ash asked. He didn't want to ask about Nibbles, both because of how uncomfortable it still made him feel as well as how upset he remembered his mother being when everyone kept asking that after his grandfather died.

Leaf nodded.

"Cool." There may have been another reason why he didn't want to bring up what had happened. From his position Ash could see out of only one porthole, but unfortunately that porthole had what he would have thought was a wonderful view yesterday: the picturesque Maiden's Peak, with the stone sculpture of the maiden in the very middle of the circular glass.

He was the one who had demanded that they go past the fence. He was the one that had dismissed the danger of Jynx, acting as if a lack of sightings actually meant a lack of Pokémon.

He was the reason Nibbles was dead.

Well, not the reason, really. The psychologist, Nurse Joy and her assistant, the officers, and the doctors, they all made it perfectly clear that he wasn't to blame: the Jynx was the one who had ensnared them, the one who had killed Nibbles; the officer was the one who gave them permission when they shouldn't have; the island's own policy of not monitoring their own flora and fauna was what had allowed the Jynx to become so powerful that it posed the threat it did.

Which was great, yeah, and intellectually he understood that all of that was true, but at the end of the day he should've been on that list too. He was the one who had pressed the officer to give them permission, after all; he was the one who had been unable to stop the Ice/Psychic type before...

Well, before.

Leaf sighed. She didn't speak.

The Seagallop took off in silence. It came to port in silence, too.

There was an Ace Trainer waiting on the dock to take Leaf home, but before they took off with Leaf, her backpack, and a small coffin, the grieving girl turned back, rushing at Ash and grabbing both of his wrists.

"I don't blame you, Ash. I don't blame you."

"You should." Ash muttered.

"I don't. I don't blame anyone, not even the Jynx—she was just trying to eat, you were just trying to explore, the officer was just trying to do his job. It was just... really, really, unfortunate." Leaf let go of his wrists. "I'm... I'm upset, yeah, but I'm not angry, and I don't blame you, so don't blame yourself."

Ash didn't exactly agree, but if that was how Leaf felt then he'd try to respect that, and work even harder to drive out his residual feelings of guilt. He promised her as such and waved her goodbye as the Ace Trainer's Kadabra teleported her away.

He checked into the Vermillion Pokémon Center again. The Butterfree Migration was on its second day, but Ash decided to wait until the next before hiking out. Today felt like a day just to stay in bed and watch crappy old battle videos on his Pokedex.

The next morning Ash got up early and spent about an hour doing 'maintenance work': he went through his entire backpack, throwing away his trash and reorganizing a few of the weightless containers, first, before turning to personal hygiene and shaving what few hairs cropped onto his face in the past few weeks (being baby faced was, according to his mother, a genetic problem that he was unlikely to grow out of.) He then turned to his Pokemon.

Generally every time he checked them into a Pokemon center they would, on top of getting a full health work-up, also be groomed somewhat and have their nails clipped or their muscles massaged or whatever else was necessary to keep them in peak condition. That said, it was highly recommended for trainers to at least work on their own Pokemon some of the time (given that it was thought to strengthen the bond between fighter and trainer) so Ash made a habit of grooming each and every one of his Pokemon at least weekly, though due to the circumstances of their capture Ash had at first gone through the process daily with Sparta and Eacus, though he'd decided to switch to every other day for the both of them, the former having adjusted quickly and the latter having had longer to adjust.

Still, today each and every one of his team was getting the spa treatment.

By the time he was finished it was nine, which was just in time to call his therapist for that day's appointment—waking up at four had its benefits.

An hour later Ash closed the phone app on his Pokegear and opened the shop app.

So… here's the thing.

Education? It didn't actually… end… at fifteen. Well, it kind of did, in that there was no more publicly funded classroom classes to attend at one's local Basic Education school, but it also kind of didn't because, honestly? No one would hire you with only a BED (Basic Education Degree of completion.) So, of course, his mother had enrolled him in the same program that hundreds of other young, travelling trainers were enrolled in: Kanto Self-Paced Learning.

Funded by a joint effort between Sylph Co., Giovanni, and a coalition of local Professors and Researchers, KSPL had a building in basically every major city or town in Kanto. It ran by having you choose classes, then allowing you to rent various textbooks to allow you to study for your various courses. After you enrolled you would be given a list of your first tests and the general information you would be expected to reach. You could take the tests whenever—technically you could be enrolled for eternity—but generally the courses were designed to be completed within a year. You could only take the tests at one of their many, many facilities.

This was all perfectly nice and efficient in concept. In truth? Maybe 30% of trainers completed any of their courses the first year. After that most trainers dropped out of the League to enroll full time in a trade school or college with classrooms, and the rest had had a year to get used to the rigor of training and battling, so the percentage of classes that were passed went up to 80%. Therefore it was generally thought that actually enrolling in any courses during your first year of training was insane.

But when, about a year ago, his mother had asked him if he'd wanted to give it a try? Ash may have been a little…

Overconfident, let's say.

He hadn't really thought through why, exactly, the number of classes finished was so low. He hadn't considered as thoroughly as he should have the difficulties of studying when you were spending the entire day hiking, or battling, or training, or, if you were lucky, sleeping. He'd just figured that there was no reason why he wouldn't be able to do it—after all, he was top of his class at Pallet Basic Education, why wouldn't he be able to maintain that level of academic rigor outside a classroom?

It was currently October 6th. He'd started his journey on August 1st. In that entire time, out of the 56 tests he had to take spanning seven courses? He'd taken, drumroll please, four.

Out of 56.

1/6th of the year was over and he'd completed 1/14th of all of his coursework.

And, actually, now that he'd thought about it, he'd technically been enrolled since July 23rd, so he was more behind than that.

It had just been _so freaking hard_ to do the work, though. Things had kept on happening—like the whole Mt. Moon thing, or…

Okay, so at first there were many, many days where he'd had the time. And, actually, he probably could have plowed through quite a bit of studying instead of moping around Porta Vista, too, so excluding the event he was currently trying very hard not to focus on, he'd had plenty of time recently, too.

But he'd still been busy! He'd had to train, and he'd had to rush to Vermillion in time to get the tickets, and he'd had to battle to get enough money to keep up his food and medicine expenses. It was harder than it sounded!

…he bet Gary was on top of his classes. Stupid Gary.

ANYWAY, it was only ten and when he'd staggered down for breakfast at five in the morning a quick perusal of the trainer bulletin board had told him that a group would be taking a bus to the Butterfree migration at noon anyway, so he might as well try to at least somewhat tackle his looming coursework.

Not to mention it was better than just sitting around, and he'd also figured his Pokemon deserved a break after what happened in that-thing-he-was-still-trying-really-hard-not-to-think-about, especially considering that while Nurse Joy had told him that his Luxio Zeus was about a step away from evolution and the only reason his Houndour Eacus hadn't was because he'd literally not had enough energy to, she'd also told him to hold back on actually evolving them until they'd had time to fully recover from that-thing-he-was-still-trying-really-hard-not-to-think-about, especially given that both evolved into forms that were notoriously hard to control.

Which meant…

School. More specifically, it meant downloading the KSPL app onto his Pokegear, because the physical textbooks he'd been loaned the last time he'd gone to take tests had not exactly weathered the S.S. Anne disaster well (he may have, at the time, thought that carrying them around outside of the weightless boxes would help him build muscle when he wasn't carrying around one of his Pokemon. He wouldn't be making that mistake again—everything goes in the waterproof boxes, period.)

While he hadn't been charged with the costs of any of the textbooks (the circumstances of their… condition… being out of his control), they were also completely unusable and as pleasant as walking all the way across the city to pick up even more textbooks was, he knew you could loan the same books from their app, which, while it did cost money, was well within his self-imposed spending limit.

(in other words, he was lazy.)

Nevertheless, the app did not take long to buy, and it only took him a couple minutes to find and download all of his courses' books (he was mainly trying to go for government, finance, and law based courses, given his dream job), and before long he was sitting at the cramped desk his room had been provided with, with Eacus lying at his feet, Zeus lying in his bed, and the rest of his Pokemon doing some sort of weird competition involving a lot of staring and occasional unexpected hooting in the rest of his room (from what he could tell, Tyche and Triton were both vying for the lead, but he really had no idea what game they were playing in the first place.)

Sighing, he turned to page 86 in "The Essentials of Political Analysis", grabbing a pen and paper from his backpack as he did so.

It was going to be a long, long hour, and he may as well get started.


	28. Butterfree

The bus to the Butterfree Migration was as crowded as Ash expected it to be. In fact, there wasn't even any room to sit down by the time he arrived. Instead he ended up pressed between two guys about his age, clinging on desperately to one of the cords hanging from the ceiling. The bus creaked uncertainly when the driver finally decided to start it, but after a second or two it began to steadily careen forward.

By the time it left Vermillion's boundaries Ash had decided, quite firmly, that destroying all busses via Magcargo as soon as humanly possible was not only a possible solution to a world utopia, but entirely necessary.

Eventually, though, it came to a stuttering stop at the bottom of the hill (the bus could apparently not climb up a slope that steep, road or no.) Ash and the dozens of other trainers and interested parties spilled out of the giant metal death trap (how in the world were there people who wanted everyone to have one of these?) and up the hill, eager for the festivities to begin.

It would be a bit of a wait, though. Butterfree would begin migrating as the sun began to set, preferring to do most of their journey in the dark, guided by stars, and given that it was currently only 13:30 they had a while to wait.

That didn't mean there wasn't anything to do, however—there was a small booth in which one could learn about the migration, and even learn how to temporarily release your own Butterfree so that they could participate. There was a potluck, too—free food native to both Kanto and the many island countries that the Butterfree ended up near. There was also a very large dance floor for both Pokémon and people which caught Ash's attention, but honestly he wasn't brave enough to do that in public; he liked dancing, sure, but he was also all too aware that his skills were... lacking.

Instead Ash made his way into the woods, moving away from the large field that was housing the Butterfree, their spectators, and the numerous hot air balloons that were being prepared to take off when the mating ceremony began.

It had been a while since he had been on the Kanto mainland, and he really wanted to smell and hear the forests that made it his home instead of the many people who inhabited it—nature, after all, had always made him feel at home, and the Sevii islands, for all that they may not have been as bad as he had treated them, smelled overwhelmingly of the ocean, and had too green trees, too sandy dirt, too different noises, for him to really feel like it was a true Kantoan October.

It only took a few minutes for him to begin to feel far more content as he wandered about with no real goal in mind besides taking in the nature. This place, for all that it wasn't exactly the Pallet forest, looked, smelled, and sounded right. So for the next hour Ash and his Pokémon simply explored the nearby area, watching the wilderness as it went on its day to day life.

The peace was broken, however, by the distant shouting of a boy.

Ash, despite his misgivings, turned to the noise rather than away; a Zebstrika never changed his stripes, and neither did he.

Within less than a minute he was able to make out what, exactly, the boy was saying:

"Buddy! Buddy! You got to slow down!"

Was that... Joey?

"Hey, Joey!" Ash shouted. He began jogging, but came to a stop almost immediately. Just ahead of him a Butterfree had burst into his vision, being chased by not only a Crobat, but also a Vivillion, Pidgeotto, Ledian, and Gastly. At first glance it looked as if the Butterfree was losing, but it was surprisingly agile, and used all sorts of powders liberally as it sped forward.

That the other Pokémon were clearly only trying to stop the Butterfree from continuing, rather than attacking themselves, meant that the butterfly Pokémon was doing surprisingly well.

"Ash?! Hey, Ash! Help me out, Buddy's acting weird and I don't know why!"

"Sure! Eacus, use Roar."

The dark/fire type complied immediately, bringing the Butterfree (and many of the other Flying types) to a stop out of pure fear.

Not bad for an as-yet-unevolved Houndour.

Joey finally managed to catch up to his Pokémon, having taken a much less circuitous route, but by then he was too out of breath to do much more than return his Butterfree and try very hard not to pass out.

In the meantime, Ash checked out Joey's other Pokémon. He didn't want to believe that the boy who had spent 48 hours straight studying for his Final Pokemon Trainer Exams could abuse his Pokémon, but Pokémon also didn't typically run away for no reason.

But it didn't take long to figure out that the rest of Joey's Pokemon seemed perfectly healthy; hell, he even had a Crobat, and getting one that was caught as such to listen to you was functionally impossible, which meant that Joey, like Leaf, had gone through the incredibly difficult process of getting his Crobat to trust him enough and feel loved enough to evolve while already captured.

So, if abuse wasn't the reason...

"Joey, you are aware that it is currently Butterfree mating season, right?"

"What?" The boy gasped out.

"Yeah, once a year about a fifth of all Butterfree feel compelled to flock to the same area—about four kilometers from where we are now—on the same day and fly a long way across the ocean to a bunch of human-free islands, where they, you know, mate. I'm pretty sure they've even figured out how to test when your Butterfree will want to attend. Didn't you get that checked?"

Ash's former classmate finally straightened from his bent position. He rubbed the back of his neck and shrugged. "The Nurse Joy in Saffron may have mentioned it, but I wasn't really paying attention. I'd scheduled a battle online, you know, at the Flying Type aspiring gym that's on the cliffs near Diglett Cave, so I had to get going. Um, that's why I was around here, actually. I figured I'd get a last day of training in before going to my challenge tomorrow. It's pretty important, you know."

"Why is it so important?" Ash asked as Joey began to return all of his other Pokemon.

"Well, I've decided to become a Bird Boy, a Flying Type Specialist, and if I want to than I need to have five fully evolved flying types—so I just have to wait for my Pidgeotto to evolve—and have spent at least six months working at a flying type gym. So I not only need to get the Flying V badge, but I also need to convince Kennedy—that's the Gym Leader—to let me stay on for half a year.

Hey, do you think I should let Buddy go on the migration today and just have him head to the gym before my battle tomorrow, or should I just go straight there and let him catch up afterwards?"

"...That's not really the way it works, Joey. All the Butterfree leave on the same day, and they tend to come back a week or so later."

"But— I need Butterfree! Kennedy makes you challenge with as many Pokémon as the badge number you're battling for, and this'll be my fourth! And there's no way either Ledian or Gastly are strong enough!"

Ash shrugged. You could just not let Buddy go. It's not the end of the world, you know—most caught Butterfree don't, and they're just kept too far away from here to care or left in their Pokeball until it's over."

"But, but what if Buddy hates me?"

"I don't think—"

"If he hates me then I'd have to release him, and then I'd lose one of my best friends!"

"That's probably an over—"

"But if I don't release him then I'll definitely loose the battle and Kennedy will never take me and she's the only flying gym leader in town! What should I do?"

Joey was almost hyperventilating by this point, so rather than trying to reason with him Ash suggested they just go to the Butterfree Migration's information booth.

Which was, as it turned out, a mistake, because the second Joey saw all the other happy Butterfree dancing around together and waiting for dusk, he began to panic all over again. It took more of Ash's strength than he was willing to admit to drag the scrawny teen the rest of the way to the smiling attendants.

It took _them_ almost half an hour to convince him that no matter what he did it wouldn't be the end of the world—if he didn't let Butterfree go, the Flying/Bug type would likely have completely forgiven the incident by the next day, and if he did, then he could simply ask Leader Kennedy to postpone their battle, and even offer to do some free work in the meantime to prove his desire for the apprenticeship.

In the end, though, Joey decided that his Pokémon's happiness came first, no matter how quickly he'd stop caring. Ash even leant him his Pokegear to call and reschedule, and to Joey's utter consternation Leader Kennedy was perfectly happy to battle him in two weeks instead.

"She runs an aspiring gym, not a certified gym, Joey. It's not exactly like she'd got people lined around the block. Hell, even certified gyms will generally let you reschedule unless they're running some sort of campaign like... like what Lt. Surge just did." Ash stumbled more than he'd like when he remembered the S.S. Anne, but thankfully Joey seemed too distracted to notice. "Didn't the scheduler tell you that when you set the battle up?"

"Well, yeah, but... it's not like I could have known they were telling the truth, right?" Ash blinked, suddenly remembering exactly how surprised everyone had been to learn that the other boy had passed the Final Pokémon Trainer Exams on his first try.

"...you didn't think they were telling the truth, or you didn't pay attention when they were rattling off all the information?" Ash asked.

"It was a lot of words!" Joey whined, before waving Ash's next statement off. "I know, I know... I need to pay better attention, it's good information, yadda, yadda, yadda...

Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks—for stopping Buddy, and figuring out what was wrong with him, and helping me decide what to do, and all that."

Ash shrugged. "It was no problem; acted as a good distraction, if nothing else." Then, before Joey could question him, "So when are you going to release Buddy, anyhow? Don't you want him to meet his temporary journey-mates?"

Joey nodded rapidly and began to rifle through his jacket pockets—he kept three balls in each pocket, but he didn't actually have a way to differentiate between the ones on the same side besides stickers he'd stuck onto the top of each ball. It only took him a couple seconds, though, to figure out which one it was and hit the release button.

Buddy the Butterfree took no time whatsoever to leap into the fray of beating wings and purple bodies. He quickly found himself dancing for one in particular, one which had actually caught the attention of quite a bit of the trainers below: a bright pink female who was, according to overheard conversations, called Jewel. While she hadn't yet acknowledged him, it did often take the entire trip for a female Butterfree to make up her mind.

"Get some, Buddy!" Joey laughed. Ash groaned.

The next few hours were spent watching the Butterfree cluster while eating hot dogs, soda, and Cottonee candy, but the fun began when the sky began to darken.

"It's starting!" Someone shouted. The Butterfree had stopped flying about somewhat randomly, and started to swirl together in a giant tornado-like fashion, cooing as one.

"I see Buddy!" Joey shouted. He slapped Ash's arm, pointing straight at Jewel the shiny Butterfree, as the two dashed to the hot air balloon they'd signed up for earlier.

Ash actually couldn't tell which of the many nearby purple Butterfree was Buddy, but he had no doubt that Joey could. "Looking good."

They piled into the balloon. Thankfully, only about ten other spectators had signed up for this one, and they were all quite quick to arrive, which meant that theirs was one of the first to take off, giving them a wonderful view of the Butterfree beginning to move over the ocean.

But, like always, all good things must come to an end.

A very, very familiar hot air balloon appeared over the horizon—directly in the way of the Mating Ceremony, which was illegal.

Sure enough, a number of police officers had identified the same balloon Ash had, and the Team Rocket members who may or may not be inside it, and took off and their various Pidgeot and Noctowl partners. Some had already been in the air—they'd follow the Migration for the first third, before the security would be picked up by the Orange Islands for the next third, while the Alolan police force would cover the final third of the journey.

Team Rocket had not been the first to notice the huge swath of Pokémon that were temporarily released by their trainers at the same time every year.

This year, however, they seemed to have prepared: while they didn't seem to be shooting at anyone, some of the officer's Pokémon were mysteriously dropping out of the air.

"Damn it." Ash muttered.

"What's going on?" Joey asked.

"Team Rocket. They're trying to get the Butterfree."

"What! Why?" Joey gasped. He began to search for Buddy more actively, nearly leaning out of the hot air balloon as he did so.

"Many of them are trained but not currently technically caught, plus there's just a lot of them in one place, plus their powders, eyes, wings, and body hair all have numerous uses. That's why there's a security team in the first place."

"But... but they're not doing well." Joey said. This was true; while a few of them had been able to successfully buffet Jesse and James' balloon, the criminals certainly seemed to be in the lead—any time any Pokémon got too near, it would drop immediately and another officer would have to abandon the pursuit to grab their falling colleague and Pokémon. "What do you think Team Rocket is doing to them?" He asked.

"I don't know." Ash said. He leaned forward like Joey, trying to see more too, but before he could their hot air balloon conductor shouted a warning that they were turning back.

Joey yanked out his pokeball, trying to somehow find and capture his Butterfree just like all the other trainers, but like them he'd never actually try—forget finding them among the many purple and white bodies, they were technically capturing their Pokemon, not returning them, so they'd have to throw the ball—and even if they were lucky enough for it to hit, all that would mean was the ball lost among the waves of the ocean.

"I'm not turning back." Ash muttered. He grabbed a pokeball, but not to capture a Pokemon—he released one.

"Boreas, I know we haven't practiced this, but you need to get ready to catch me and keep me in the air, okay?" He said. The Staraptor cawed; it was a bit small to carry Ash (he still had only a twelve-foot wingspan, and it was encouraged for trainers to wait until it was fourteen feet before using them as transportation. Still, Boreas was strong. Ash felt confident enough to stand on the basket's ledge, bat away the hands trying to pull him back in, and jump.

Boreas caught him.

"Alright, Boreas, our goal is to get close enough to the hot air balloon shaped like a Meowth to see how they're dropping other Pokemon without getting dropped yourself, okay?"

Boreas cawed again and pushed forward. Ash tried very hard not to let go as the wind shoved into his face and his every muscle felt pushed to the limit. It was hard to open his eyes, but he forced himself to do it, squinting against the wind and trying to see what was happening.

Eventually, though, Ash did manage to get a glance of what was happening in the Meowth balloon.

Thankfully, Ash was right: it wasn't a gun.

He couldn't see what it was, exactly, but based on the closed eyes of the falling Pokémon, it was much too similar to the Porta Vista Hypno.

More interestingly, a Murkrow hovered behind the Meowth balloon, diving to pick up the pokeballs of any captured Pokémon and dropping them in Jesse and James' basket.

Well, if it were like the Hypno, then...

He wrestled with his belt, forcing another pokeball out and then forcing himself back as far as he could on the Staraptor's back without losing his grip.

"Okay, now I'm going to try something risky. Get ready for some additional weight, alright?" Ash asked. It took him a few seconds, but he managed to direct the ball in the right direction and press the button.

Directly in front of him, way too close for comfort, Eacus appeared. And promptly began to freak out.

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Ash said. "I know, I know, but I need you to do something for me, okay? I need you to—" Ash grunted as Boreas beat his wings harder than expected. "To, um, jump to that hot air balloon."

Eacus did not seem to be exactly thrilled with this plan.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. But nothing else is working and they've managed to capture over twenty Butterfree already, so Boreas is going to bring you as close as he can and then you're going to have to take a leap while Boreas dives down and he'll catch you if you fall, okay?"

Eacus still didn't look happy, but he also seemed more capable of withstanding the wind than Ash, so he could see the Butterfree being captured in real time.

"Okay, Boreas, you ready?" He said.

Boreas beat his wings, and they were off, fast enough that all Ash could do was squeeze his eyes shut and hope he could keep his grip.

Ash could feel movement, and hear noise around him—shouting, and Butterfree squeals, and what sounded like Jesse's voice—but he didn't bother to open his eyes again until he felt Boreas pull into a deep, sharp dive. Thankfully it seemed to controlled for the Staraptor to have been hit with whatever it was, so that hopefully meant that Eacus was in the basket.

He squinted against the glare of the wind and the sun, trying to see what was happening, but it was too hard to tell—Boreas was circling below Team Rocket's balloon, keeping an eye out for a falling Eacus, while much of the police had disappeared, having had to return to shore before the additional weight of the officer they saved, as well as the Flying type's actual trainer, became too much for the Pokémon.

Thankfully, from what he could tell, the Murkrow was at least temporarily out of work—there didn't seem to be any more pokeballs falling from the sky.

Unfortunately, that did little to assuage his anxiety— any noise coming from the Meowth balloon had been swallowed by the wind, so Ash had no real way to tell what was going on.

Then—

Less than a minute after Ash had started the risky plan—

A Mandibuzz came out of nowhere, carrying a trainer on its back and headed straight for Team Rocket.

"Hands up!" A woman's voice shouted. She and her Mandibuzz swept in, directly next to the balloon, and the woman climbed into the basket.

Ash tentatively told Boreas to rise again. He didn't know who the woman was, but if she was acting against Team Rocket then it was probably safe to go up.

Thankfully, his view became unobstructed just in time to see both Jesse and James holding their hands behind their backs as they were arrested. Next to them stood a black and white beast with large curved horns; a newly evolved Eacus was crouched intimidatingly over a puddle of pink and purple; a Musharna, if Ash remembered correctly.

"Who's Houndoom is this?!" The woman, who wore an air force combat uniform, called out.

"Mine!" Ash shouted back.

"Damn good Pokémon you got there!" She shouted. Ash grinned.

The following minutes passed almost as quickly as the attack; he'd been asked to return Eacus (and promptly did), before being roped into helping the police release all of the already captured Butterfree. In the meantime he had been able to get the full story—Team Rocket had apparently heard of the effects of the Hypno and tried to mimic it using an illegally obtained Musharna as well as a prototype device to amplify the signal; this was to be a test run for larger projects which, according to one particularly chatty officer, they were already hearing rumors about.

Regardless, it had not actually taken that long for the police to realize the same thing Ash had, and the second they did they'd called out for anyone with a dark type that could fly; as luck would have it, the flying type gym leader Kennedy was the only one in the area that had a Pokémon who qualified.

That did not mean that everything was perfectly rosy, though: no less than five people, including Leader Kennedy, one of the Butterfree Migration attendants who was helping to permanently release the Butterfree, two regular police officers, and a lieutenant, had gone out of their way to explicitly explain to Ash exactly how dangerous what he did was. The lieutenant had even put a hold on his theoretical future flying license—he wouldn't be able to get one until January now.

He definitely wouldn't be telling his mom about this particular incident.

...he'd probably tell his therapist, though.

Still, by the time he'd once more reached terra firma the repetitive action of releasing balls and the constant chatter of everyone else had calmed him down substantially, enough so that, despite his exhaustion, he was able to release his team and smother Eacus in love for almost half an hour.

Then he passed out. To be fair, he'd been up since been up since seven, and had had to deal with Joey, a Team Rocket attack, five lectures, and _two_ bus rides. He deserved his rest.


	29. Resource Passage

The morning of the seventh of October saw Ash get up almost as early as he had the day before (a pattern he was hoping wouldn't continue.) After whizzing through that day's homework (it was on Pokemon energy production, something he'd already studied in his free time) and trudging slightly less happily through his appointment with his therapist, he decided the day was going well enough that he may as well splurge—an Ace Trainer was selling discounted teleportation rates to get some pocket money, and Ash took her up on her offer for a direct trip to Saffron City. After all, even though the Butterfree Migration had been a flop, gym battles always took his mind of things, and it was about time he went up against the Psychic leader anyway.

"What do you mean she's not taking any challengers?"

"I _mean_ she's not taking any challengers—which is, surprise, surprise, _exactly_ what I told you—and everyone else—the first time you asked!"

The gym assistant may have been a bit annoyed.

Ash shifted uncomfortably. "Um… sorry. It's just, I hadn't heard the gym was closed or anything on the radio, so… I wasn't expecting it, I guess." He'd really been hoping to give his Houndoom his first chance at a gym, but Eacus was so much weaker than the rest of his team that he'd figured Saffron City was the only place where it made sense to do so.

"Yeah, yeah. I know. She only… she stopped taking battles yesterday, and given everything that happened with the Butterfree and the yearly flu outbreak beginning, apparently the news has been a bit slow to pick up on it."

Ash shifted uncomfortably again, but this time it wasn't because of any gaffe on his part—he just really hated needles, okay? And he was fifteen anyway—he was allowed to make his own choices about flu vaccines, and it wasn't like the chance was that high that he'd get the flu anyway!

"Any particular reason for your eagerness to fight here, anyway? Most other trainers just went to the aspiring Fighting Gym instead."

"My Houndour just evolved, and I know if I challenge anywhere but where he has a huge advantage he'd be creamed, but I at least want to give him a chance to fight." Ash knew it was kind of stupid—Eacus was growing at such a quick pace anyway; he could probably even take a couple weeks off like his mom wanted without falling behind, and spend all of it training. But at the same time the draw of a gym battle was hard to resist, and he _really_ wanted to share that excitement with all of his Pokemon, not just the ones that had been with him since the beginning.

The gym assistant sighed, then turned to her computer. "Okay… so, the thing is, Sabrina's… indisposed at the moment, but you could just wait for her—I give it a minimum of a week before she's back in battling shape, but it might take up to a month, depending. On the other hand, if you go to Lavender Town—you'd have to go the long way, since Route 8 is closed indefinitely due to a dust storm—then you can challenge Mr. Fuji, who runs the Ghost gym." She turned the monitor to face Ash, outlining a path that twisted below Saffron City directly towards Route 11, followed that Route to the east, then abruptly turned north on Route 12.

"A dust storm?"

"Yeah." The gym assistant said. "I mean, half of the route is pretty forest-y, but the other half is basically a desert, so that leads to some weird weather patterns. Actually, you're probably going to have to deal with some dust in Lavender, too."

"I'll think it over." Ash said. "But is there any chance you can put me early on the list for when she does return?"

The gym assistant sighed again—she seemed to do that a lot—but pulled out a small notepad. "Gimme your name and trainer number and I'll see what I can do."

Ash chose to go. Battling was his rest, and journeying was his training, and it was about time to sleep in nature again, anyway.

The Resource Passage—apparently solely for use in mining up until a couple years ago—was surprisingly clearer than Ash expected. The road was less a road and more a series of tire tracks from the machinery that came in and out, and the path tended to zigzag a bit between one mining site and another, but so long as he remembered to stay at the side of the road when one of the giant transport vehicles were coming through, it wasn't all that bad. It was fairly empty, though. Ash guessed that was because it was a passage instead of a route—the latter connected city to city, while the former connected a route or city to another route, which was less convenient. Still, it did give him plenty of space to release his Pokemon.

Which allowed him to start doing everything he'd been admittedly quite lackluster in doing for the past few weeks. He and his Pokemon raced, leapt, lifted, bent, and twisted—they did everything but swim and dive, and that was not for lack of trying. At the same time, whenever they took a break, Ash also began to work on some other things that he'd admittedly put on the backburner.

"No!—I mean, I was trying to tell you to go left, not attack." It was lunchtime, and after a quick meal for the lot of them, Ash had turned to one thing he knew for a fact he was falling behind on—less obvious commands. "Alright, let's try again." He stomped his foot straight down, while clapping once at the same time. The general idea was that movement would be determined by how his foot moved—one stomp was 'go to closest opponent', while two was 'go to the opponent to your left' and three was 'to your right'. Scraping his foot would mean dodge, or back up, or both. The largest issue, though, was moves—forget how many moves his Pokemon knew now; by the time they made it to the Indigo league they'd probably know dozens!

He'd referred to the Pokedex for that one, but it had simply encouraged choosing about four key moves to create 'shortcuts' for. He understood that reasoning, of course—it's not like he couldn't use other moves, and the silent commands he did use had to be ones that both he and them could remember, and that could transfer across each Pokemon. But at the same time, four seemed… lacking. He'd then turned to gym leaders' and elite four battles, but they'd proved pointless too. Not only had he already watched all of them battling, but the majority of them rarely looked as if they were commanding their Pokemon at all.

Anyway, he'd decided to start with just four moves, symbolized by one or two claps, a snap, or two snaps at once. The claps would be attacks, the snap some sort of status move, and the two snaps a defensive move. For combos he'd decided to just whisper the name—it wasn't as if they'd be well known.

Another thing he'd thought of doing, actually, was just creating new names for each attack. The problem, though, was again the sheer amount of attacks. That didn't mean that he thought what he was doing was the perfect way of going about it, but he needed to do something. He'd never seen a battle for the sixth badge up that actually had the trainer speak more than once or twice.

But even his adapted, simple version of silent commands weren't as easy as he thought they'd be to teach. He'd been trying to have Zeus follow his commands in a spar against Eacus for twenty minutes now, and despite the Luxio's best effort, he would still frequently forget to listen for the commands, or what they meant. Ash didn't really understand it—all of his Pokemon, even Boreas, had picked up his spoken commands easily, but for some reason his new ones were going over their heads.

And, because that wasn't enough, Zeus was frequently becoming frustrated with himself and releasing small bolts of electricity without meaning to, which meant Ash had to frequently stop the battle to cover Zeus in mud (Nurse Joy had recommended it as a frequently used method of training electric type Pokemon to maintain better control of electricity—not only did it stop the bolts for some time, but it was also highly uncomfortable for the Pokemon it was used on.)

Regardless, after the fifth lightning bolt Ash decided to call it quits for the day and go back to hiking. This had absolutely nothing to do with it being the first bit of electricity to hit him, of course.

At around two, however, a distinct difference began to be noticeable. More specifically, the noise.

The mines that Ash had passed so far had either been far enough from the road or unused enough that whatever mining sounds there were were distant and easily ignored.

As Ash neared the exit onto Route 12, however, the noises of heavy machinery as well as entirely new ones of _people_ took over increasingly from the noises of nature. As Ash rounded a bend, the reason became clear: a large, completely deforested construction sight, with heavy machinery scattered throughout and a large crowd of teens, mostly his age, clustered in the front. Ash jogged down to join the group—he may as well, after all; it wasn't as if he was in any rush.

Just as Ash entered the crowd a man with a megaphone appeared in front of it and began hollering for them all to be quiet.

"Alright, now that you've all settled down, I'm here to announce a big opportunity—just for you! As many of you may know, Diglett's Cave is four miles away, and until now effected the mining on Resource Passage very little. Unfortunately, recently that has changed. The Diglett seem to be trying to expand their territory nearer to these natural resources, and are proving a nuisance to our mining. While we of course don't want them to be hurt, it is also important that they leave the area, so we have here a one-time deal for you: for every Diglett you catch, we will buy it off you for the price of a Pokeball plus 100. Dugtrio will be worth the price of a Pokeball plus 300. I know, I know, that's not much, but it's still money, and on top of that we will give a grand prize of not one but three ultraballs to whoever catches the most by the end of the day! What do you say?"

"What will happen to the Diglett?" One girl called.

"Those you sell back to us will be released back into Diglett's Cave. Those you keep… well, you keep."

The crowd seemed amenable to that, and soon the man was pointing out areas where a particularly large number of Diglett were seen.

Ash headed off to the first area pointed out—he could use the money, and the Ultraballs were always desirable.

Unfortunately, just as he'd arrived at the manmade hole that was apparently infested, he noticed just who else had chosen to hunt there.

"Ashy-boy!" Gary called.

"Gary." Ash said.

"It's good to see you—been a while, hasn't it? I'm not surprised to see you here, of course—only earning money by battling isn't great for your bottom line, is it? I'm doing well, of course, even if I didn't get the Ralts."

"I'm sure." Ash responded.

"Say," Gary started. "Do you have any experience catching Diglett? Actually, what Pokemon _do_ you have?"

"I've got a Gardevoir, Breloom, Staraptor, Seadra, Luxio, Houndour, and Hitmonlee." Ash said.

"That's… that's it?" Gary laughed. "Man, what _have_ you been doing with your time? I've got ten Pokemon myself; a Hitmonchan, Pidgeot, Noibat, Clefable, Scolipede, Dugtrio, Poliwhirl, Abra, Eevee, and Ponyta."

"Not bad." Ash admitted. It really wasn't—Gary's spread covered eleven types, compared to Ash's nine, and most of his Pokemon were generally considered quite powerful too. "Wanna battle it out?"

"Maybe later." Gary said. "I've got a competition to win, and even if you're my only competition in this area, there might be better trainers in other spots."

With that he leapt into the hole, skidding down the sides and releasing his own Poliwhirl as he did so. "Flush 'em!" He shouted.

Ash grimaced and grabbed his own Pokeballs while releasing Bacchus. No reason to miss the opportunity just because Gary hadn't learned a modicum of kindness.

Below him Gary's Poliwhirl had begun shooting water into any Diglett hole he saw. Gary was darting around the edge of the giant ditch, waiting for a Diglett to pop up.

"Keep an eye out, Bacchus." Ash said. He slowly inched into the ditch, watching for any movement as he did. Diglett were ground types, and he doubted that they'd be able to stay in their tunnels for long if they were flooded.

Oddly, though, there wasn't any sign of them at all.

There were very obvious Diglett holes all over the place, sure, and even a couple that a Dugtrio could likely fit through, but not one showed any movement.

In the center of the hole Poliwhirl was now spinning around, shooting water to destroy any hole he could reach, but nothing popped up out of any of the rest of the holes, and as the seconds stretched into minutes, it became clear that that wasn't likely to change.

"…do you think they just left?" Ash asked as he neared his childhood bully.

"Doubt it." Gary muttered. "I did my research, unlike you. When Diglett are scouting out a new area they don't tend to connect their tunnels—a natural defense, you know?—so they shouldn't have many places available for them to escape the flood from, and they should all be in around the same area."

"Then why aren't there any?" Ash asked. Gary grimaced, but didn't respond. "I'm going to check out the other areas." He said.

"I'm going with you—Vortex, you stay here and attack any Diglett that pops up."

The two tramped up the side of the ditch, and spent the next half hour going from one end of the new mining operation to the other. Diglett holes were everywhere—some places you couldn't even get by without going on your tiptoes to avoid stepping on them—but there was not one side of the moles themselves. The other trainers confirmed this, admitting frustratedly that they also had yet to catch anything too.

Finally, Gary got fed up. He hadn't wanted to do it when Ash had suggested it initially, reluctantly confessing that he'd yet to figure out a way to communicate underground, but as it became clear that all of them were missing something important he finally released his Dugtrio.

"Dirt, go underground and try to find where the Diglett and Dugtrio tunnels are headed, okay? Then come back up and point me in the right direction."

"…You named your Pokemon Dirt?" Ash asked.

"He liked it!" Gary said defensively. "Anyway, at least I didn't name them after a bunch of old defunct religions."

Ash shrugged—he liked his naming system, and none of his Pokemon had seemed to mind. "How long do you think it'll take for… Dirt… to—"

Dirt popped back up.

"Right, where are they?" Gary asked. Dirt's three heads bobbed in every direction. "Yeah, yeah, I know that, but what direction are they headed?" Dirt's heads popped back underground, before reappearing again. Gary grimaced, returning his Dugtrio. "Well, that wasn't much help. Any other bright ideas?"

"Do you think your Pokemon's telling the truth?" Ash asked.

"What?"

"I mean—look at _how many_ holes there are. I know the guy said they only just arrived, but wouldn't you think there'd be less of them if that was the case?" The two looked around. Admittedly, there were _a lot_ of holes.

"Yeah, but we're so far away from Diglett's cave—I mean, before now the furthest they were seen was like two miles away!"

"Maybe it's just a different population of Diglett? I know they've only been seen in the cave before, but there are _a lot_ of holes, and if they did actually have one of their tunnel systems underneath here then they'd probably have some way of filtering out water from rain and the like too, which they might've been able to adapt to your Poliwhirl's attempt."

"…let's go talk to the guy."

The man with the megaphone was sitting behind a folding table that seemed to have been put out specifically for the contest—a locked cash box sat to the man's left, a clipboard in front of him, and a large box (likely to hold the anticipated Diglett) on his left. The man himself, however, did not look all that prepared. He appeared to be sweating, and he was on the phone with someone who was barely letting him get a word in. Upon seeing them, however, he literally leapt up, nearly dropping the phone and shouting out

"Did you catch one? I knew it was only a matter of time!"

"We didn't catch any." Ash said. "It looks like the Diglett may have a tunnel network down there, so it's not likely we'd be able to get any of them out, and anyway, if they do have a network then they must've been here a while already."

"Which means, in case you didn't pick up on it, that we know you were lying earlier when you said they were recent problems! I bet you just wanted to destroy their habitat so you could take all the resources, laws be damned!" Gary sneered. Ash grimaced—not only did they have yet to know what was going on, but even if the man had been doing that, accusing him without proof wasn't likely to get them anywhere.

"No! No, that can't be—we would never—see here! You're just two nobodies. What do you know about Diglett anyway?"

" _Nobodies?_ " Gary gasped, but before he could get started Ash interrupted.

"Are you sure there's not a network? I mean, there's kind of a lot of signs… I don't think that if the Diglett were just scouting this place out there'd be as many holes as there are."

"Well, I mean… we only started working here a few months ago, you know? A group we subcontract resource location to said there was a pretty significant collection of crystals and the like a few dozen meters down, which could be anything from stardust to just some pretty rocks to sell as jewelry. My bosses thought that it was a good opportunity, though, so we moved some of our machines down here and got digging. And there were only a few Diglett holes at first, you see, and we noticed them, but… well, everyone knows Diglett are only native to Diglett's Cave, but sometimes they go explore the surrounding areas. We just figured they were checking the place out, and would leave once we got started." At this the man drifted off, and turned around to look at the dirt construction site around him.

"But they didn't leave, did they?" Ash prompted. Gary opened his mouth, but Ash elbowed him before he could say anything—the other teen's countenance hadn't changed since being told he was a nobody, and something told Ash that they would stay on topic if he were allowed to speak.

"No, not really… actually, more and more of the holes began to appear. We didn't really know what to do, you see, so I came up with the idea of this opportunity, to put the Diglett where they were supposed to be and let us get back to digging.

The voice on the phone—which had been making noise intermittently since Ash and Gary arrived—grew louder, but the man did not seem to notice.

"Yeah, you're probably going to want to bring a researcher out here to make sure, but I'm pretty sure you just found a second Diglett habitat."

"Damn it." The man muttered. "All that money, all that work…" Just then his phone screamed again, and the man finally remembered what he was holding. "Oh! Oh, hello sir—no, I wasn't ignoring you—no, I swear I wasn't… yes, sir, well, I have some bad news on that front… yes, sir… well, apparently there's a Diglett population here and—… apparently not, sir… No sir, I don't think that'd be a good idea, and it's illegal anyhow…I don't know sir…I don't know sir…I don't know sir… yes, sir. Right away." With that the man stood up and began packing away everything at the table.

"Wait—what about the contest?" Gary yelped.

"Well, apparently there's no way to remove all the Diglett, and they're staying away from the surface right now besides, so I guess it's over. No one wins."

"What?! But that's not fair—at least I should get something for figuring it out!"

"Hey!" Ash said.

"The rules of the contest said nothing about figuring out what the problem was, just catching Diglett."

"Well, give me some time then. I bet I can get a few to come out if given long enough."

"Nope! Contest over." The man disappeared into a trailer parked at the edge of the sight, before reappearing long enough to shout the end of the contest on his megaphone and then disappearing again.

"That's not—" Gary yelped.

Ash took his chance to leave. This had been an unusual detour—and one he would be keeping an ear on the radio to hear the resolution of—but he wanted to leave before Gary decided that it was all his fault. On an average day dealing with the other boy was hard enough, but Gary wasn't one to take being "slighted" well, and the last time he'd felt he hadn't gotten his due because of Ash he'd chased after him for nearly two whole days, reminding him at every available moment that he'd regret being elected Pallet Basic Education class president (never mind that Gary hadn't even come in second—he'd come in fourth, with a grand total of one vote in his favor.)

No, best to leave while Gary was still distracted by "his" lost Ultraballs.

Before his former classmate had a chance to turn around Ash was off, speeding towards Route 12 and Lavender town.


	30. Hippie Gym

Ash took it easy the next day, planning to only make it about halfway down Route 12—it was supposed to a relatively flat route, with much of the coast that it bordered covered in short bridges, piers, and other outcroppings. Route 12 was, after all, the main supplier of water types (both for food and battle) for the region, and so it was also one of the most well-traveled routes, and had the added benefit of almost being an oddly shaped city itself.

Given that, Ash decided it wasn't as necessary to keep an eye out for wild attacks, and instead meandered along the coast, having his Pokemon practice diving and the like whenever there weren't any fishers in the immediate vicinity. This had the added benefit of making Triton absolutely thrilled—while the eastern coast was known for weaker ocean dwellers, on average, than the southern coast, the fact that he had been put in charge of protecting his teammates from any water-based attack made him nearly swell with glee. Boreas… well, he hadn't been as onboard with it, but a few sharp words kept him from making a fuss.

In the meantime, Ash decided to use the unusually calm day to catch up on some of his schoolwork and other to-dos. It helped, of course, that he was finally learning about something he hadn't studied before: sentience.

Sentience, the textbook explained, was a relatively recent concern, brought on by an increasing awareness of exactly how small the line that separated humans from Pokemon was. The biggest differentiator, of course, was how they changed over the course of their life—did they do it as one sort of continuous thing, as in the case of humans, or all at once, in the case of Pokemon? This matter was complicated by many Pokemon not having lines that evolved at all, and those that did not actually needing to evolve to reproduce.

The current presiding theory emphasized human's ability to innovate. Even Pokemon that were able, to some extent, use tools, understand complex language, and work together, were not nearly as capable of coming up with novel ideas. In fact, most simply copied the actions of their kin or of humans as best they could. An experiment involving Alakazam, for instance, found that while they scored higher than many humans in the ability to understand and copy viewed actions (in the case of the study, manipulating a stick a certain way in order to get food), they were categorically unable to come up with the actions on their own, while most humans were.

Nevertheless, the textbook continued, it was obvious that many Pokemon were, in fact, much more intelligent than human ancestors had given them credit for. This led to the question—why did they willingly follow humans? Was it because they had no choice? Were they actually miserable under a veneer of happiness?

There were, to Ash's relief, many counterpoints to that argument (a very popular one in Unova, currently, that was rapidly gaining ground.) For one, even Pokemon that were not captured and trained using Pokeballs, and Pokemon given every chance and a half to escape, generally didn't. For another, among those Pokemon whose neurotransmitters were better understood those that were captured showed equal if not better amounts of their "happiness" neurotransmitters than their wild counterparts did.

So then why?

The textbook then took an abrupt turn to Pokemon group dynamics. While more tropical Pokemon, like those in Alola, were best known for it, nearly every Pokemon was capable of acting in a group in nature, and many in fact did it was a matter of course. Not only that, but while tropical Pokemon group leaders were generally chosen for their strength and power (typically through brutal combat within the group until a winner was chosen), in colder climates it was more frequent for Pokemon to chose their leaders based on experience or clear intellectual superiority—in other words, those that were able to adapt best led.

Connecting wild group dynamics to that of a trainer and their Pokemon, the textbook concluded, was actually quite simple. The Pokemon recognized the trainer, despite obvious physical and occasional intellectual inferiority, as their best chance to survive and thrive, and would therefore form the same emotional bonds as they would to a leader in nature to their trainer, which explained why naturally pack Pokemon (like the Houndoom line) tended to acclimate more rapidly than typically loner Pokemon (like the Staraptor line.)

Despite how fascinating his textbook had unexpectedly become, there was only so much walking and note taking Ash could do, so at around midday—after he'd worked on not only biology, but also economics, government, and leadership—he switched his attention to his second priority: Unovan.

Ash… hadn't really liked the whole stomping thing, and he also didn't want to use a device that could possibly break or go wonky unexpectedly as his way of communicating. It was actually his government textbook, in the end, which had given him the idea, as it had had a chapter on the difficulty of translating between languages and how that effected international politics.

Well, Ash had figured, if a lack of monolingualism was an issue in politics, then that probably extended to Pokemon battling—of everyone he'd met personally, he knew only Rick and Lt. Surge were bilingual, and only Oak was trilingual. While there theoretically could be—and probably were—plenty of others who were, the most important thing was that it was functionally impossible for most Pokemon to know more than one language—only Alakazam had any luck, and that wasn't all that surprising as it was the only Pokemon that didn't "cheat" in learning human languages by only memorizing a couple hundred key words and completely ignoring the rest.

This was important, because the biggest problem with spoken commands wasn't the other trainer understanding you—whispers could deal with that—but their _Pokemon_ being able to react to your words.

Speaking in another language would solve that, even if it meant his own would gradually lose the ability to do the same to his opponents.

After deciding to give it a shot, Ash was faced with a dilemma of which language to speak. He, after some reading, narrowed it down to three options: Kalosian, because his mother knew the basics, Alolan, because it was the least well known (most Alolans being bi- or trilingual), and Unovan, because it was the most frequently used in the political realm.

He chose the latter. If he was to be champion, it was best to get _all_ of his groundings now, instead of when he had fifty other priorities competing for his attention.

Therefore, at approximately 13:00, Ash downloaded a moderately expensive Pokegear application that promised near-fluency in under a year, and from then until dinner time he started cranking through his lessons as fast as possible—his goal was to be able to use it to battle by the new year, and it was already October.

In fact, it wasn't until Ash came upon an aspiring gym that he did anything but repeat the same simple phrases over an over again (and try in vain to ignore his Pokemons' none-too-polite looks as he did so.)

He had, to his chagrin, actually completely forgotten that Route 12 had an aspiring gym, much less that it was currently in the running to take over from the fire-type official gym when the Indigo League eventually grew tired of its leader's… quirks.

But there it was.

It…. wasn't really what Ash had been expecting.

In fact, part of the reason it had taken so long to notice it was because he'd never seen a gym quite like it. Up until this point each gym he saw was one single contained building with a large label and clear (if occasionally odd) organizational system.

This one was just a series of tents.

It wasn't even like the Cerulean Gym—the tents weren't garish, nor were any of them particularly large. Instead they were just… many, and they spanned almost entirely across the available walking space, and looked to go on for quite some time down the path. Ash could see musicians spaced around the camp, some playing drums, others singing, still others on different wind instruments.

There was also a giant wooden effigy of a man in the distance, so that was something.

Honestly, though, this was giving Ash serious flashbacks to his mother's photos of her flower child parents—Ash could almost see the psychedelic pants now.

Well, he had the time, and gym badges were never something to scoff at. Why not check it out? He'd probably have to walk through it, anyway.

It took more time than Ash expected to find out how to have a gym battle. He'd entered the cluster of tents, of course, but the only reason he knew that this really was the gym was a small sign—"Normal Aspiring Gym Here"—located just outside the camp—none of the tents had any sort of label on them, and after he walked into one which ended up being a women's bathroom, he decided not to bother testing each out.

The people were also incredibly unhelpful—he wouldn't be surprised if most of them were on drugs, and even those that were sober or at least lucid enough to talk told him to relax, take his time, "what's the rush? No one's going anywhere?"

He was nearly a full mile into the camp when found an old man sitting on a stump, playing an odd looking flute to the surrounding people and Pokemon. He stopped to listen, drawn in to the unusual melody.

It was…odd, almost eerie, but beautiful, and the instrument seemed far too basic to create the sounds coming out of it. The man's song continued, drawing in a crowd around him as it twisted and grew and changed.

Eventually, though, the old man's song drew to a close, and the crowd began to disperse. Ash stood still though, frozen in place from the power of the music.

And then the man spoke.

"Greetings, child of the universe."

"Hello. Um, I liked your song."

"Well, then, I'll take some food."

"What?"

"Isn't my playing worth a sandwich?"

"Umm…" Ash fished into his backpack. "I have some granola bars?"

"No cookies?"

Ash checked. "No."

"Well, even granola bars are kind of groovy, I guess." The man said. He yanked five of the granola bars out of Ash's hand. "Careful of your food, though—there's not much around here."

"Why?" Ash asked.

"The fresh water river opposite the ocean dried up, so all of the fields surrounding it are having issues with food. The elite four have been sending their water Pokemon to douse the fields, but it's not enough to completely fill the fields, and most of that food is transported to the major cities."

"Why has the food dried up?" Ash asked.

"Why should I care?" The man said. "I have granola bars!" He hopped off the stump and disappeared into the tents.

Ash fished out his radio, and tried to tune it to a news station.

"Hey, what are you doing man?" A hippie said, interrupting him as he finally got to a good channel. "There's no news allowed here! Live in the moment, man!"

"I just want to find out why there's a drought!" Ash said.

"Who cares?" The girl said. "The prices are a bit higher everywhere else, sure, but there are no prices here—everything is given freely."

It. Took. Ash. Two. Hours. To find out why the drought was happening. Four hours to get a steady radio connection that no one tried to turn off; four hours to hear a story that was being reported on every few minutes on the local news channel.

"Tangela?! That's all it is?!"

Tangela. Arceus-damned Tangela, who had grown too numerous and blocked off much of the river's flow. The ranger corps were beginning a marketing campaign to convince trainers to capture them, but it had only just started so the crops problems continued.

"Tangela?!"

"Yes?" A hippie girl said.

"What?"

"That's my name—Tangela."

"You're… name… is Tangela? Like the Pokemon?"

"I mean, my parents named me Mary, but that's such a boring name, so I go by Tangela now, and I only fight with Tangela too!"

"Well," Ash said. "You're in luck. There's a huge Tangela population a few miles north, at the river."

"Really?" She said excitedly. "How'd you find that out?"

"The radio." Ash said. She made a face.

"Ugh, why are you on that? This camp's all about living in the moment! Doing things here! Stop focusing on what's happening everywhere else—all that'll do is stress you out!"

"Well, one thing I wanted to do here was find the normal type Pokemon gym." Ash said.

"Oh, see that big tent—the one that's orange near the ocean? That's the gym." A ukelele started playing, and her face jerked to it, her feet beginning to move before she'd even finished speaking.

The tent, which was in fact big and orange, had a familiar face standing in front of it.

"I've finished those granola bars." The old man said. "Have anything else?"

"Um… no. I'm. I just want to get into the tent behind you." Ash said.

"Ah! That's my tent!" The man said.

"You're the gym leader?"

"Yep! Only got the one Pokemon, but that's enough!" He said.

"Well, I want to challenge." Ash said.

"Okay, but I think for you it's going to be a bit of a letdown." The old man muttered.

They entered the tent, and both pulled out their Pokeballs. Ash pulled out Boreas—the Staraptor was itching for a fight and it was unlikely he'd be used in the next two gyms, so he may as well be used now.

Both took a deep breath, then the referee—a goateed fellow who'd stumbled in a few seconds after them and offered his services, called the start of the battle.

They released their Pokemon.

Staraptor zoomed out, speeding to the very top of the tent and circling in the air.

The old man's Pokemon, on the other hand… well, it snored.

"It's… it's asleep?" Ash asked.

"Yep!" The old man said. "I don't have enough food to feed him, so he's going to sleep until that's changed. Careful not to hit him too hard or have the battle go on too long, though—then you'll have a rampaging Snorlax on your hands."

"Great." Ash said. Boreas was similarly thrilled.

It did, however, pose an interesting problem—Snorlax, as the man had mentioned, tended to wake up if they'd been hit too much, and hungry Snorlax were ridiculously hard to defeat, to the point that Ash didn't even want to try.

So, the battle, instead of being about combat, was instead to defeat the normal type before he woke up.

Boreas was returned. He wouldn't like that, but he'd have to deal.

Then he brought out Tyche.

"Calm Mind, Tyche, until you can't anymore." Ash told her. "Then Focus Energy, then Psychic." The best way to do this was skip any kind of defensive move, but going straight offensive was also a problem. Building up power first, however? If he could knock out the Snorlax in only one or two moves, then this really would be a ridiculously easy battle.

He couldn't imagine how trainers who only focused on offensive moves would do.

It took a few minutes for Tyche to fully prep. She seemed to realize there was no hurry, so she focused on empowering herself as much as possible rather than focusing on the speed in which she could complete the move.

Then she struck.

It was… it was as if she was dozens of times stronger than she actually was. The sheer amount of _power_ , of strength she portrayed… it awed Ash.

But it barely fazed the sleeping blue Pokemon.

Ash grimaced, and Tyche attacked again. And again. And again. And again. And with each strike Ash's anxiety rose—would this be the last hit the Snorlax was willing to take? Would this be when he woke up and hit back?

With the last attack the Snorlax began to move, but before he could get up completely Tyche hit him one last time. The sheer amount of power she had built up before she attacked, as well as the fury and haste she attacked with once she began, was barely enough, but it _was_ enough.

The Snorlax went down.

Ash got a new badge.


	31. Mr Fuji

After the odd tent city, it did not take very long for Ash to arrive in Lavender Town. The two had _very_ different atmospheres.

Lavender Town was much more quiet, for one. Ash couldn't hear any music, or voices, or even footsteps that weren't his own. The only noise that was clear was the wind, which sometimes seemed to morph into eerie laughter, making it impossible to forget that the area was a hotbed for ghosts.

There was also a tower.

To be fair, the tent town around the Normal type gym also had a central piece—a large wooden effigy of a man—but given that one seemed to be a celebration of living in the moment and the other was literally a vertical graveyard…

Yeah. Different atmosphere.

It didn't take long for Ash to find the Pokemon Center and check in, and the Nurse Joy there—almost as quiet as her surroundings—helpfully gave him the address to the Ghost gym. It wasn't, she warned, like most gyms; Mr. Fuji wasn't looking to give away badges on fighting prowess. He had a different aptitude he wanted to measure.

The 'gym' seemed to support that.

It was an old fashioned house more than anything else, and the doorbell's ring reminded Ash disturbingly of Bill's lighthouse.

Before the door even opened, however, a purple wisp raced around the house, blowing past him with such speed and force that he fell.

"F—"

"Hello, Mr. Ketchum." A man said.

"—uck. Oh. Um, hi. Sorry about that—there was an, um, well—"

"I can guess what happened." The man said. "It is not relevant. The Saffron gym has contacted me and informed me of your plan to challenge me. Are you ready to begin?"

"You're Mr. Fuji?" Ash asked. He really should have looked up more about the man—and the gym—before he arrived.

"Yes." Mr. Fuji said.

"Well, then, yes." Ash said. "All my Pokemon are good to go."

"Please follow me." Mr. Fuji said. He turned around, disappearing into the dark hallway. Ash entered, but in the few seconds he had stood gaping the old man had disappeared.

"Fu—I need to stop cursing." He glanced around, trying to see any sign of light. Beyond the cloudy sky behind him, there was none. Even the other windows seemed at the very least tinted to keep most of the sun rays out.

He frowned, wondering why that was the case, then released Eacus.

"Hey, you can see in the dark, right?" Ash asked. Eacus nodded. "Great. Can you smell the human who is here most often?" Another nod. "Can you follow the scent to where he is now?"

Eacus took off, Ash hot on his heels.

The house, thankfully, was just that—a house, not a maze. Mr. Fuji turned out to be inside the second room on the left on the second floor.

"Smart." Mr. Fuji said as he entered. "Most simply wander around until they find me. I do not respond to my name being shouted."

"I figured it wouldn't be a big deal." Ash said. "This is a gym, and Eacus is smart enough not to do anything damaging outside of battle anyway."

Mr. Fuji hummed. "As you are aware, this is a Ghost type gym. However, while I will have you fight one of the Ghosts that live here, I do not believe battle skill is the most important factor of being a trainer. Do you have all your Pokemon with you?"

"Yes."

"How many do you currently have?"

"Seven."

"Please3 release them all."

"Um… can the floor support it?" Ash asked. It looked like hardwood, which was good, but many older buildings like this one could only handle seven Pokemon in one spot on the first floor.

"Yes."

Ash released his other six Pokemon one at a time—his Gardevoir Tyche, his Breloom Bacchus, his Staraptor Boreas, his Seadra Triton, his Luxio Zeus, and his Hitmonlee Sparta. He identified them as he went.

"And where did you get each Pokemon?" Mr. Fuji asked.

"Um, let's see… Tyche was my starter, I picked up Bacchus in the Forest, Boreas was my second selection Pokemon and I got Triton as a Horsea right in the Cerulean river, Zeus was my third selection Pokemon but there was an issue with the Pokemon transfer machine so I only got him after Eacus, who…" Here Ash drifted off. The trip between the second and third gym had not been a good one. He took a deep breath. "Who had been abandoned by his previous trainer in the rain. He was still a Houndour, so it was really dangerous, so I got him straight to the nearest Pokemon center. The next day I battled Eacus's Pokemon trainer because I'd been warned I couldn't go after him legally, and I won, so he abandoned his Hitmonlee for letting me win and Professor Oak was kind enough to keep Sparta until I was legally allowed to have him."

"Two abused Pokemon?" Mr. Fuji asked, surprised. "Most trainers, particularly young trainers, don't want and aren't able to deal with the additional difficulties of dealing with Pokemon with previous bad trainers."

"It wasn't so bad." Ash said. "Houndoom are naturally loyal and trusting so it didn't take long for Eacus to come around so most of what I had to deal with with him was the physical effects, which Nurse Joy was very helpful with that. Sparta came around to me basically the second he found out how well I was treating Eacus and physically he was mostly fine too."

"Still…" Mr. Fuji said. He was wondering around now, visibly dissecting each of his Pokemon and occasionally gesturing to have one of them show him their arm, or tail, or other body part. "Your Pokemon are quite healthy. You could do more, I think, to keep them clean on the road, but they are well fed and not at all weary of humans."

"Is that unusual?" Ash asked. He hoped not.

"No, no." Mr Fuji said. "Simply… good, every time I see it. Yes, I believe your Pokemon are well cared for enough for you to challenge me. Follow me to the backyard."

Unlike the house, which was quite quiet and empty, the backyard was full of activity. Ghosts of all types—most native to Kanto, some not, whirred and zipped and loomed everywhere. Ash's Pokemon, who were still released, immediately found themselves attacked—not malevolently, but almost playfully. Zeus's ears and Bacchus's tail got pulled, several dozen ghastly swarmed Tyche, dancing around her head, Triton found himself lifted up more feet than expected every time he bounced, and a Sandygast, of all things, had moved itself under Eacus and was now pulling at the poor Houndoom's feet.

"Don't mind the Pokemon." Mr. Fuji said. "They're just introducing themselves."

Another purple blur—now clearly one of the Ghastly line—rushed past Ash, again pulling his feet out from under him, but before he fell another purple blur flew behind him and kept him on his feet.

"Your Eacus will be fighting a recent addition to the group." Mr. Fuji said. He continued steadily moving away from the house. The backyard was a long one, with its end obscured by a gradually increasing number of trees.

"Why are there so many ghosts?" Ash asked, urging his Pokemon to keep moving forward as he did.

"I take in any and all abused Pokemon, Mr. Ketchum. While in recent years Kanto has gotten better the fact remains that many Pokemon were at or near death when they arrived at my residence, and many of those deaths created Ghosts in their anger, in their fury."

"But there are no living Pokemon?" Ash asked.

"Of course there are!" The old man laughed. "But they tend to be more timid—conditioned, mind you, not natural. That means they stay back when challengers arrive. Ah! Here we are."

A Gengar, large and haunting and oh-so daunting, stood directly across from the old man.

Oh.

See, the thing was, Ash had kind of figured Eacus would be fighting a Haunter. There was only one ghost family native to Kanto—Ghastly's—and while its highest evolution _was_ a ghastly they were notoriously rare and dangerous, _so_ he'd… assumed, really, that it would be a Haunter.

This was apparently wrong.

Eacus whimpered.

Ash gulped.

Gengar.

A Gengar.

A mother f-ing Gengar.

(Cursing is bad, stop cursing.)

Well.

This would be fun.

Rather than go to an actual arena, Mr. Fuji explained that the two Pokemon would be fighting in the woods. Technically, legally speaking, Mr. Fuji owned the entirety of them, so there was no worry of the fighters accidently wandering across anyone else.

"Eacus may begin when he wishes." Mr. Fuji said.

Ash looked to his Dark/Fire type, who looked back at him. He nodded. Eacus took off.

It was hard to control the battle in the woods. Not only was the sheer size an impediment, but with ghost types in general it was often very difficult to figure out what they were doing at any particular point in time. Instead, as more and more frequently was the case, Ash had to rely on his prior training with Eacus to see the Houndoom through.

Thankfully, Ash had prepared for just such a scenario.

Out of all Eacus's moves, the most powerful against the Gengar would be Beat Up. It was Ash's favorite dark type move of all type, because it, like the Houndour line itself, completely bucked the (mis)conception that dark types were unfriendly malevolent loners. Beat Up, which relied heavily on the creature's feeling of support, was the perfect movec to use when one had a large team. Not only would the dark type know that you had their back, they knew the rest of their team did too.

Eacus had not only Ash, but six other teammates to fall back on.

His Beat Up hit _hard._

The problem was that the Gengar seemed aware of that, and knew far too many tricks to avoid getting hit by it. It zipped through the trees, hiding and fleeing and attacking seemingly randomly, but never getting hit in response. Many of its attacks were intended to trip the Dark Pokemon up, too, rather than attacking directly. The longer the battle went on the more confused, frustrated, and exhausted Ash's Pokemon got.

"Come on, Eacus! You can do it!" Ash shouted when the Houndoom came into vision again looking all but hopeless. His other Pokemon also called their support—Boreas, as usual, was by far the loudest but that didn't mean any others were particularly quiet.

The dark/fire type gave a toothy grin, barking in response and dashing back into the woods eagerly, nose to the ground. He'd always been very easy to motivate—unlike Staraptor, who could get himself into funks even in practice, Eacus just needed a few kind words to be completely refreshed.

A yelp, then a deep, bone-chilling laugh.

Then a woman's scream, a growl, a flurry of crashing sounds, and another scream.

A purple blur raced into the air, and then—shockingly—a black blur followed, jumping from tree limb to tree limb and bending some of the weaker ones almost entirely over. The black jumped, hitting the purple head on, and both fell back below the tree line.

A few minutes, and odd noises, later Eacus limped out of the forest. Eacus was more harmed than Ash had suspected from a battle with a ghost, but then it had been a Gengar. Nonetheless the Dark Pokemon looked very, very proud of himself.

"Did you win?" Ash asked. Eacus nodded.

"Well done, Mr. Ketchum." Mr. Fuji said. "Your reward." A badge and a trip to the Pokemon Center (expedited by playful ghosts pushing them along) later Ash found himself sitting in his room. At a loss of what else to do for the day—he hadn't really expected to have the gym battle immediately, and expected to spend the rest of the day preparing for that.

Instead, with a groan, he pulled out his schoolwork. He'd visit the Pokemon Tower that evening (the most recommended time to do so), but until then he may as well use his extra time to push ahead, or at least keep up.

(Not to mention that he'd recently, stupidly, decided to add learning a new language to his to-do list, so between Unovan and his classes he really did have to spend a few hours a day on books and reviews rather than battles and training.)

Still, that didn't keep him from becoming increasingly bored by the strings of words, and before long he found himself wishing desperately for the sun to drop below the horizon.


	32. A Different Perspective

Jesse snuck in first. James, her brother, had always been a little bit afraid of ghosts and for all that this was supposed to redeem them his fear stuck firm. So she snuck in first.

The tower, of course, was dim. It was only 15:00, but there were already some residents and visitors milling about, paying respects to the graves that lined the walls and covered the floors. For James the biggest problem with this assignment was the ghosts. For Jesse, on the other hand, it was the feeling of wrong-ness.

Team Rocket had never really been much for rules and morals, particularly based on feeling. It was one of the group's biggest draws; work for us and you won't have to avoid doing something just because other people say its wrong! If you want a Pokemon, take it. If you want to physically show your anger at a perceived slight, feel free.

So, according to the Team Rocket credo, there was absolutely no problem with doing what they were doing.

And yet Jesse's uneasy feeling remained.

"It's fine." She whispered behind herself. "Come in." A terrified man stepped in, glancing around fearfully. "You start this floor, I'll go up."

She slipped away from him, readjusting her wig as she did so. She made her way up the stairs, keeping an eye on the odd looking elderly lady who refused to move and made Jesse edge around her instead. Pickpocket? Just lazy? Or a seer, who already knew the uniform that Jesse had put on underneath her disguise?

Eventually she made it to the top floor. She, as well as James, was drenched in the strongest repellent available (not that it was available to most, of course, but that's where their boss came in.) This meant she didn't have to worry about ghosts, or any of the other Pokemon that called the stone building their home, and instead she began carefully setting up the small devices she'd been given. There were three types, total, and she knew she had to set up the smallest ones before any of the others.

Jesse rapidly moved down the building, switching each device on as she hid them out of sight. While she mostly worked as fast as she did because she knew she needed the time, she also moved fast because of the results of flipping the switches—each let out an almost imperceptible noise, frustrating to ghosts and humans alike, which made them uncomfortable enough to feel almost subconsciously repelled from the location of the noise.

By the time she got to the second floor she only had about two devices left, but thankfully by then James had been able to move fast enough that the floor was nearly done anyway. Thankfully, the devices seemed to already be doing their jobs: the there were no longer any people around, and even the old woman had disappeared.

Jesse was thankful.

Being responsible for her death would have been a difficult weight to overcome.

With the first devices having been set up, Jesse and James removed their disguises, put on headphones, and began work on device #2. Unlike the first these took much longer to set up. They were, after all, intended to look as if they'd already been there for quite a long time.

To be perfectly frank, Jesse wasn't entirely sure what this assignment would accomplish. The Boss seemed pretty certain this would be a good idea, but she honestly didn't see how. She wasn't really sure what she was doing, either. She knew the steps, of course—she and James had practiced over and over again a few miles off the road just the day before. But what, exactly, setting these things up were supposed to do…

Perhaps it was better if she did not know. She'd never tell James, but she was becoming more and more disenfranchised with Team Rocket and its goals as the years went on. As a recently orphaned teenager who had to take care of her little brother on the pittance the government offered and had failed, over and over again, to pass the FPTE and be allowed her own Pokemon, she'd loved the promises of TR.

Here, she had thought, was an organization that _got it_. They saw her struggles, they knew it wasn't fair, and they gave her a path to do something about it.

She'd had a blast stealing her caseworker's Pokemon for Team Rocket at the time. Now she wondered… she knew they had been well cared for by the woman, and she was equally aware that few in TR had any qualms hurting, maiming, killing Pokemon. Hell, many didn't even have a problem killing humans. So was it really right that she punished her caseworker for doing her job, for trying to help her get a minimum wage job and keep on taking the FPTE and offering to have James put in a Home, for punishing her for doing all of that by punishing her Pokemon?

But, of course, it was too late for those kinds of thoughts. James was fully enraptured now, in love with his career and with TR as a whole. He'd wax poetic about the strength of them, and about the new world order the boss promised they were coming closer to every day, where a Poochyena-eat-Poochyena world would be established and everyone would be allowed to use all tools at their disposal to succeed.

And even if James, by some minor miracle, turned away from the cause, it wasn't as if either of them were remotely capable of fighting the might of Team Rocket and the oversight of their boss. Once you were in Team Rocket you never got out, period.

By the time they were finished with establishing several devise #2s on all levels their stomachs were growling, and Jesse and James both decided to take a break before setting up the final devices—the bombs. Their goal was to set them off just as everyone was going to bed, so they felt fairly good about the schedule.

James picked at his teeth as he finished the sandwiches Jesse had bought from the deli across town. "Do you think this'll really return us to boss's favor?" He asked.

"Should do." She said. "This is one of the most important assignments we've been given without at least a babysitter, so if it goes off without a hitch then he'll know he can trust us to get things done again."

James frowned, gazing at his backpack. The bombs were thankfully small enough that they'd been able to put all of them in his with room left over so they had room in their backpacks for the first and second devices too. "What—exactly—is bombing the tower going to do?" He asked.

"It's going to destroy the tower." She snarked, then sighed. "Boss didn't explain it so well, anyway. All I know is that the bombing's not going to be blamed on us, its going to be blamed on someone else. That's why we're supposed to set the bombs up where we are."

"Well, let's get started." James said, grunting as he got up. "I want a good night's sleep before we report back tomorrow."

Did he really not care what damage they were doing? Did he really not feel uncomfortable about destroying graves? Had she really failed that much as a sister.

No matter.

He was right, they had a job to do and the sooner they were done the better.

Jesse had barely finished her second bomb when she heard movement coming up the stairs. They'd both started on the fifth floor, this time, so the fact that someone had managed to get onto the fourth floor despite all of the first devices they'd set up was… worrying.

She held a finger to her lips, gesturing James to get outside of line of sight of the entrance, and snuck closer herself.

It did not take long for her to recognize the head that appeared at the top of the stairs. It was the boy… Ash, she thought, who she and her brother had a nasty habit of running into.

His eyes widened as the recognition became mutual.

She released her Arbok and Meowth. Behind her she heard her brother releasing his own Weezing. They'd grown quite a bit since he'd last fought them in the tunnels. Let's see how he likes them now.

…

Ash froze as he saw the woman with the Team Rocket logo (Jessie?) standing at the top of the stairs. He'd wondered, as he'd risen through the tower, where everyone else was, and attributed their absence to the odd headache he began to get. He wondered if this was the ghosts' way of saying they wanted to be alone, but he'd promised his mother to visit her first Pokemon's grave if he ever came to Lavender, so he thought he'd just quickly do that and leave.

But when he'd finally come to the fifth floor, the location of the Dodrio's grave, he had not expected to see TR already there, clearly somehow the cause of the tower's emptiness.

She released her Arbok, likely the same Pokemon as the Ekans he'd had to fight all those months ago. Then she released the same Meowth as he'd seen before, and Ash forced himself to move. Ash rushed up the stairs, squinting his eyes against the sudden burning sensation in the air—oh, and there was the other Team Rocket member and his once-Koffing-now-Weezing. That'd explain the suddenly toxic air.

Ash grabbed his pokeballs, releasing his Hitmonlee and Seadra as the most powerful and least weak Pokemon he had available. "Team Rocket !" He shouted. "Attack!" Sparta burst into action, rushing straight at the Meowth and performing Rain Dance as he did. Triton took advantage as the sudden condensation of water in the room, shooting Water Pulses at the poison Pokemon in the room.

Unfortunately, it quickly became clear why the two had come without backup: they alone were powerful enough on their own.

It was the Weezing who took down Triton. He did it almost without care, taking the Water Pulse head on and pushing through it to blow a toxic sludge straight at Triton using a move ash didn't recognize. Triton tried to avoid it, but it was too wide, too powerful—not only did it completely drench the poor Seadra, it also covered the Arbok who had been trailing after (not, of course, that it was at all affected.)

Sparta, at least, wasn't running into much trouble. Of course, the type match-up couldn't have been more in his favor: a pure normal type versus a pure fighting type battle was always going to lean one way, and when that was combined with unevolved versus evolved…

But Triton was down, and now Sparta had three Pokemon turning on him. Ash grimaced, then released Zeus and Boreas, repeating the same call that he had to Sparta and Triton while he returned the water type.

But the two, unfortunately, weren't the power team Ash had hoped for. Zeus was limited by his relative youth (the reason Ash wasn't releasing Eacus at all) and Boreas, while strong, was burdened by the enclosed space and the cloud looming just under the ceiling. They were, at least, able to keep the poison types of the Hitmonlee long enough for Sparta to take the Meowth down.

Unfortunately in the process Zeus fell. Ash returned him, but hesitated in releasing Tyche or Bacchus—the former was far too weak to the remaining enemies, and while the latter was both helped and hurt by poison he also had little to use against them.

Just then Boreas got in a lucky hit against the Arbok, felling the large Pokemon, but as he did so he left Sparta open for the attack and the Weezing took full advantage.

The fighting type fell.

Only Boreas was left, and as Ash returned his Hitmonlee his fingers hesitated over his remaining Pokemon. What was he to do?

Boreas cawed his challenge, taunting the remaining beast looming over him. It was clear that Weezing was far more powerful, but the flying type refused to back down. The Weezing spit a ball of poison at the flying type, not even bothering to use a move in its certainty.

Boreas, who had been preparing to attack, flinched back, clearly poisoned.

Ash's hands closed over a ball. He had to do it. Even if they couldn't win maybe releasing another Pokemon would give them time to run away.

And then—a purple blur.

It whisked by Ash first, thankfully not close enough to make him fall but still so close that he had to throw out his hands to regain battle. Then the blur flew around the room, just outside the battlers' field of vision, before shooting forward, straight at the Weezing.

Ash heard a taunting laugh, and the Weezing suddenly reared back, leaving the poison type open enough that Boreas could attack. He did so in full force, first using Endeavor and then Mud Slap. The Haunter, for that was what the blur was, appeared in solid form for the first time.

It laughed again, then pushed forward, attacking in concert with Ash's Staraptor and forcing the Weezing completely on the defensive.

The Weezing fell, and Boreas cawed in joy, flapping his wings in a manner Ash recognized as complete unadulterated joy.

Ash did the same, shouting out in triumph, and then realized something.

The Weezing had not been recalled.

He looked around, for the first time realizing that the Team Rocket members had disappeared, and then noticed the blinking lights flashing through the room.

"Boreas, return!" Ash shouted. "We need to get out of here." He told the Haunter. The purple blur flashed in front of him and he flew down the stairs, worryingly noting the blinking red lights on the fourth, and the third, and the second, and the first floor as he rushed past them. None had been there when he'd gone up.

He'd just made it a few meters away from the entrance when he heard the first explosion. He was thrown onto his stomach and covered his face and neck as explosion after explosion flew through the air behind him.

By the time it was over Ash's ears were ringing and he was coughing so much he couldn't catch his breath. He forced himself to sit up, glancing at the small cuts to his hands, and sat on the ground as he rooted through his backpack for some water.

He tried not to look up, but after he had rinsed and gargled and actually drank his entire bottle he forced himself to look at where the Tower used to be.

Once, when Ash was about twelve, his mother had made him watch a documentary about the Johtoan ruins with her. He hadn't really paid much attention to the film, but one thing he'd remembered was the camera panning over building after building, toppled by the winds of time.

That picture was the best approximation Ash had to the sight in front of him, but this one did not occur over hundreds of years. This had happened in only a few seconds—less than five minutes, really.

There were other differences, too—the flowers that poked through the debris were wrapped in paper, not naturally grown. The words on some of the stones were still legible, marking out the name and life of a lost Pokemon for anyone to read. There was a lot of smaller rubble too, rubble that hadn't been there in the Johto Ruins, taken by human hands or runoff or something else by the time the camera crew arrived.

Ash sat, stunned by the destruction done in only a few minutes.

He'd won a gym battle today. He'd called his mother, and practiced Unovan, and worked on math and science problems and read three chapters of history.

And now he was sitting on the ground in front of a picture he was sure would be plastered over every single kind of media by the next morning.

He didn't know what to do about that.

A Haunter, the Haunter that had helped Boreas battle the Weezing, hovered nearby. Ash gazed up at him.

The Haunter hovered closer.

"It wasn't my fault." Ash said. "I promise. It was—it was these two Team Rocket members, though I don't know why. I have no idea how they can profit off of this." Then he laughed. "Guess I'm not cynical enough yet." The Haunter was a meter or two away from him now, and Ash noticed for the first time that the poor thing was clearly hurt from the battle—some of his ethereal skin had been eaten away by the Weezing's poison. "Hey, I can help you with that." Ash said, and he fished out his antidote.

As he began applying the spray he noticed blue and red flashes getting brighter as they neared. He realized that someone must have called the police, and that he must be deaf if he couldn't hear the sirens well before the lights were visible.

That sucked.

Well, it was time to go through the whole process of tragedy once again.

(This, Ash knew, was not going to make his therapist happy.)

…

Jesse only turned back to look at the exploding Tower once, and by the time it was demolished she was too far away to see it at all. She carried the pokeballs of both of her Pokemon—fainted—in her left hand, and followed after James as he scrambled back to the hidden camp they'd set up two days ago.

Finally back at their tent and safe, Jesse began rooting through their supplies for the revives they had been given.

"Hey, toss me one of your Pokemon." James said.

"What?"

"I had to abandon my Weezing, remember? It's probably dead now, even if it did manage to win the battle. I'd prefer the Arbok, but I'll take the Meowth if I have to. I've got some ideas on how to get him to evolve."

Jesse's stomach felt queasy. "You—you can have the Arbok." She said. "I don't mind." She forced herself to smile. "You're my little brother, after all."

Revive and potions administered, she gave him her first Pokemon, and he slipped it into his pocket without a glance. He smiled back at her, then, and kissed her on the check, promising to get dinner—"I think I saw a Kalosian food truck down the road," he said, "and I know how much you like Kalos food. It's time to celebrate, after all. We're back in the boss's favor!"

"Team Rocket!" Jesse forced herself to cheer.

"Team Rocket!" James responded, before disappearing into the forest.

Jesse stared after him. Her brother had been given his Koffing at the same time that she had been given her Ekans, and her mind refused to move on from his visible nonchalance over that Pokemon's loss.

Joining Team Rocket, it was becoming more and more clear, was a mistake. And yet there was nothing she could so about it, so she simply had to grin and bear it.

…

Once he was sure he was well out of both sight and hearing, James collapsed onto the ground. His frame wracked with sobs as he finally released the tension he'd been holding in.

His Weezing, his partner, his best friend—dead!

He knew he wasn't supposed to have thought about it, he knew his Pokemon was supposed to be considered expendable, and he'd been able to do what must be done when it came down to it, but now his heart felt in tatters. It _ached,_ as nothing had done since his parents' death all those years ago, and James knew that the ache was not likely to go away. He'd never, ever show it, of course—he knew it was a weakness, and not productive towards Team Rocket's goal.

He swore to himself that his weakness would never keep him from accomplishing those goals, but the ache remained and a small, tiny, microscopic subconscious nugget of doubt worked its way into his brain, joining its brothers in festering unnoticed and unused.

For now.


	33. Back on Schedule

Ash left before dawn the day after the Tower fell.

He'd spent almost three hours talking to his therapist, but he still couldn't help but think it was his fault—if he'd gotten there sooner, if he'd used different moves, if he'd trained his Pokemon better...

Mourners had shown up when the police had, and they had yet to leave the site, mourning those Pokemon who were supposed to have been put to eternal rest and had been so rudely reawakened.

Ash... Ash had to get out of there.

The worst part, to him, was that the day had before that point actually been pretty good. He and Eacus had aced the gym battle, he'd made pretty good progress on his schoolwork, he'd even gotten a text that Saffron gym had reopened...

And then Team Rocket showed up.

Honestly at this point he was after the Championship more because he thought he could do a better job than the glory and respect he had used to wish for. He knew Champion Lance was trying really hard, and he knew that the vast majority of the population thought the man was succeeding more than anyone else, but _come on!_ Just look at Ash's journey so far! No fifteen year old should have to deal with so much—

So much.

So it wasn't even five in the morning when Ash checked out of the Pokemon Center and began trudging down the route to Saffron.

And it was barely six when he finally realized that his Pokemon weren't the only ones following him.

Eacus had been looking around wearily since they'd gotten started, actually, though Ash had just put that down to what had happened in Lavender Town. But as the sun began rising Ash too began to notice something odd... a sort of chill that kept running down his spine, over and over and over again until it felt as if only that singular part of him had taken a bath next to a glacier.

"Eacus, come over here." Ash called. The Houndour, who had been looking back at the old town wearily, immediately came to his side. Thankfully, that seemed to work—the chill had disappeared, and with it Ash's uneasiness.

Unfortunately it took mere seconds to realize the feeling had merely migrated.

Tyche sang out a few discordant notes from ahead of them, rushing to stand next to Eacus herself. Then Triton, then Zeus, then Bacchus, then Boreas and finally even Sparta were all hovering around the dark type.

"Keep calm, Ash." The teen muttered to himself. He remembered his lessons on ghosts—few were actually malevolent, and many were simply playful without any understanding over when a joke stops being funny. Most ghost types, in fact, were known for stalking just about anyone. Almost none of them actually wanted to harm their so-called victims.

Though, given his luck...

He really needed to teach Eacus odor sleuth. Not that that was a particularly useful realization now.

Direct confrontation it is. "Hello?" Ash said tentatively. "Do you mind coming out?"

An eerie laugh—A Haunter!—but no body.

"Please?"

More laughter.

"Eacus, growl." Ash said. Eacus did as he was told.

And even more laughter. Ash grimaced. The fact that the ghost hadn't attacked yet hinted that it wasn't particularly malevolent, but he really didn't want to take any chances—it wasn't as if his luck was such that this was likely to end ok, so it looked like he'd have to prepare. All of his Pokemon but Eacus were quickly returned, and Ash picked up his pace.

The laughter continued until well after noon, when Ash decided to finally stop and have a meal. His pace was much fast than it usually was on routes, and the eerie laughter had kept any of the other trainers he'd come across from challenging him, but still the Ghost had followed.

"You're doing a great job, Eacus." Ash muttered as he brushed the dark type's fur. "I think if we push it we can arrive in Saffron in time to sleep there, instead of out here." The horned pokemon woofed, keeping an eye out on the neighboring trees as he quickly went through the food Ash had given him.

"Alright, so the plan is—" Before Ash could finish Eacus began growling. Slowly mounting to his feet and with his eyes locked on something just outside Ash's periphery. He glanced at what he could see—no other trainers, damn. But he hadn't seen anyone with a dark type anyway, so it wasn't as if any would be significantly useful.

Then he turned his head.

Just as he suspected, it was a Haunter. The floating pokemon had apparently been trying to sneak up on Ash again, but was now hovering in place and grinning at Eacus's defensive posture.

"What do you want?" Ash asked. Laughter. (Ash was getting really, really, _really_ tired of laughter.)

And now Ash didn't know what to do. The ghost type was making absolutely no attempt to hide itself, but it had also followed Ash over more than half of an (admittedly relatively short) route and didn't look as if it was going away anytime soon.

Ash opened his mouth again—to say what, he wasn't sure—and that's when the Haunter lunged.

Ash jumped out of the way, diving to the edge of the road as Eacus shot towards the ghost/poison type and the Haunter dove towards... his backpack?

"Don't hurt my backpack! Roar." Ash yelled. Everything he owned was in there, and the vast majority of it wasn't fire resistant, much less fireproof. That said, it wasn't acid-proof either, and it currently had one of the most potent poison-types inside it. This really wasn't a good day.

The Houndoom growled, but listened, instead using Roar. But no Pokemon appeared. Again, the Houndoom Roared. Again, nothing happened.

Eacus inched up to the backpack, sniffing around the bag uneasily. Ash slowly stood up. "Can you smell it?" He asked. Eacus whined—not a yes or a no, then. But where was the Haunter?

"Okay, Eacus, be ready to Roar." Ash said, and then he carefully approached the backpack while Eacus stood alert right next to it. He really hoped the fire type didn't have to—his ears would ring for days.

But the backpack was empty of any Pokemon.

Ash carefully poked through the pockets, the containers, and anywhere else that even a Joltik could fit. Nothing. Where—

Ash jerked, turning to look at the objects he'd already removed from his backpack. He grabbed his bag of Pokeballs, which he had quickly dismissed, and looked inside.

There, amidst almost a dozen small unused red and white containers, was one almost four times the size.

A used Pokeball and, if Ash was right, one that contained the most annoyingly irritating (if apparently harmless) Haunter in existence.

A little over an hour later Ash, now a proud Haunter owner, was wishing more than ever he could go back to the beginning of the day and make far different decisions.

It wasn't that Haunter was dangerous—far from it, actually; the Ghost was weaker than most of the team and had few offensive moves to speak of, none of which were really battle-ready.

But _man_ was he annoying. The Ghost—named Zelus after a mythological Mighyena demon, and let's not mention how long it took for him to decide on a name—seemed to take particular pleasure in upsetting everyone in the team. If he wasn't flitting around Tyche like an annoying Cutiefly than he was solidifying under Bacchus' or Triton's feet as they hopped along, causing them to lose balance. When he wasn't doing that he was tempting Boreas into a game of chase only to turn incorporeal when the Staraptor finally took the bait.

Zeus, too, wasn't spared from Zelus's actions. Upon realizing that the Luxio was prone to shooting off sparks whenever surprised he had begun to manipulate other Pokemon into standing near their Electric teammate, only to frighten the poor guy enough that he accidently electrocuted everyone around him.

The only ones who were left alone were Sparta (likely because the fighting type had an unnatural ability to realize when the Haunter went corporeal and punish him before he could fade away once more) and Eacus, for obvious reasons.

Really, though, Ash wasn't sure how much more of this he—or his team—could take. He wanted to keep his newest capture out to acclimate him to the team and begin training him in preparation for the next gym, but Zelus seemed absolutely determined to make him regret that decision.

Ash almost cried in relief when Saffron's gates finally came in sight. Never before had he been so happy about most cities' decisions to restrict how many Pokemon clogged the streets.

"Okay, guys." Ash said, "time for a short break. I'll release you tonight at the Pokemon Center, okay?" Most, used to the routine, agreeably went into their balls.

Zelus made Ash chase him for nearly ten exhausting minutes before he finally consented to be returned.

When he did finally arrive in Saffron Ash did not go to the Pokemon Center. He knew he should book a room as soon as possible but he needed a break. Instead he quickly confirmed his battle with the Psychic Gym—it'd be a couple days before he'd be able to fight, but at this point he didn't mind—before beginning to wander around the city.

Saffron was actually pretty huge for a city. It was the largest he'd been in up to that point, sprawling across over 50 square miles, so he had no hope of visiting even most of it before the sun set. Still, the place was peaceful. Every street was lined with street lamps, the monotony of office buildings that made up most of the center of the city was broken up occasionally by interesting attractions, and interesting scents wafted from a variety of restaurants and food stands spread throughout the urban grid.

Ash spent a while wandering around, eating some Malasada from a vendor just outside the gym as he took it all in. He visited the Magnet Train Station and chatted with the Johto tourists, he signed the sign in front of the Pokemon Trainer fan club for its purported good luck ("it expires within a year!" one of the club members warned. "Use the luck wisely"), and even grabbed a coupon from a floor installation company, for all that it was completely useless to him (the sales guy had been really pushy, okay?)

As the sun finally began to set he found himself in front of the tallest building in the city: Silph Co.

It was... large. Very large. And... rectangular.

He eyed the Johto tourists who were frantically snapping pictures of the building warily. It was big, he got it, but he'd kind of expected something more given how much it was hyped up.

Instead it was literally just a rectangular office building that happened to be wider and taller than any other in Kanto.

It wasn't even like Silph Co. was letting anyone in! Well, Ash supposed he could hang out in the lobby (which was also filled with Johtoans), but using the elevator required you to work for the company.

Mind you, that fact was apparently new:

"This brochure—this brochure, ma'am—says we can explore the _first five levels of Silph Co!_ It says you must let us use the elevator, _ma'am!_ " An irate woman said, shoving the aforementioned brochure at the front desk attendant's face.

The attendant didn't even blink. "As I've said before, since the printing of that brochure our rules have changed. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience, but you must be a Silph Co. employee to use the elevator."

"Well," the woman said, "we'll see about that." She stomped over to the elevator and pressed the call button, completely ignoring the large key card swiper that had been placed directly above the button.

Everyone else, at least, seemed to be in no rush to imitate the woman, so Ash was able to take a look around the lobby (which looked like any other lobby) while the annoying woman tapped her foot impatiently for the elevator to arrive.

Finally Ash couldn't take the curiosity. "Excuse me?" He said, getting the attendant's attention. "Can I ask why you closed some of the floors?"

She nodded. "Unfortunately we caught a Team Rocket mole in here a little under a month ago. While they weren't able to do anything before getting caught, it became clear that they had been planning a full out assault on the building. No one was ever at any risk, of course—Silph's own internal security as well as the police and Ace Trainers ensured that—but the company has decided to become more security conscious for the time being."

Ash grimaced. "Team Rocket? Really? They're everywhere, aren't they?"

"Well, not here!" The attendant said. "It would kind of ruin the point of our increased security if they were, after all."

"I guess so." Ash said. After thanking her for the information, and taking one last look around the unbelievably mundane lobby, Ash made his way to the Pokemon Center. He was glad that in this city, at least, Team Rocket had been prevented from doing any damage, but all the same... out of all the cities he'd been to, the only place they _hadn't_ been was Porta Vista, and they were still directly outside the city there.

It was more than a little disturbing to realize exactly how powerful the terrorist organization was, and how much they'd been able—or nearly able—to get away with.

In fact—no. No, you know what? He was done. Team Rocket was obviously being handled, at least here, so there was no reason for him to do anything. On top of that he had a new Pokemon to gain the respect of, schoolwork to catch up on, Unovan to learn, a Trainer class to pick, and a couple days to decide what to do with.

Lance and the police could deal with Team Rocket for now. He had his own life to focus on, and even if Lavender Town hadn't been able to ward the group off Saffron was apparently much more successful, so it was time to let them deal with it.

Ash spent the rest of the evening pushing through his economics homework and researching how to train ghost Pokemon. Both of those things, he tried to convince himself, were far more important than trying to stay one step ahead of a group which already had very, very powerful people after it. There was no reason for him to get involved here.

None.

So instead he would be studying how to maximize utility within a certain budget and whether emphasizing how the trainer could help the Pokemon or empathizing with the Pokemon's motivation was more important for getting a Haunter to listen to you. (The evidence was contradictory, as it turned out, which wasn't very helpful.)

Tomorrow, Ash decided, he'd check out the Fighting Dojo and give Sparta his time to shine, before spending the rest of the day working with Zelus.

Tucked into his bed, he smiled. For all the trouble that his newest capture brought, at the end of the day he couldn't help but be excited. Everyone whew how powerful Agatha's Gengar were, and having one himself? Especially when up until then he'd only been able to obtain one of the Elite Four's favored types?

The championship win was closer than ever.

He could feel it.


	34. Sparta

Ash knew exactly what he was going to do during his second day in Saffron (and probably several days after): The Fighting Dojo. It wasn't a gym, true, but it was generally thought to be a mandatory visit to anyone on the road to the Indigo Championship, so there was no way Ash would miss it.

The Fighting Dojo was not by any stretch of the imagination a "Gym." It had, at one point, counted as a sort of aspiring gym and many still kept the gym's badge with their official ones, but about a decade ago the Dojo had decided to go a different route:

"Test your fighting Pokemon's mettle!" A hawker shouted just outside the Dojo's doors. "Does your Pokemon have what it takes to fight without power?"

Nowadays the fighting gym focused on Pokemon's pure strength.

"Hello!" The hawker shouted. "Do you have a fighting Pokemon?"

"I do." Ash said. "A Hitmonlee—Sparta."

"Then welcome! Please turn to the right upon entering to register."

The dojo smelled like sweat.

Actually, that was a lie. It didn't just smell like sweat—it _reeked_ of sweat. Ash almost felt like he was swimming in it. It didn't look particularly dirty—after the entrance and the locker rooms and doors for the bleachers and the arena and the like the stairs down to the training room were well lit, and everyplace else was just as bright and well maintained. Even the training room—despite its semi-cramped nature and frequency of use—seemed fairly clean.

But it _stank_.

"Yo!" A man wearing a shirt with the Fighting Dojo's logo shouted. "You here to participate in the tournament?"

"Um, yes." Ash said, fighting to keep his hand from going up to his nose.

"Great! Okay, so here's the rundown: as you probably know, the tournament is divided based on the age of the Pokemon fighting. It's held once a week, the nearest one's in two days, and, of course, the actual battle does not use any actual moves but rather the Pokemon's base capabilities. You got that?"

"Yep."

"Good, good. Now, I'm betting that you've never fought a battle like this before, so I'm going to warn you now: neither you nor your Pokemon are ready. It's nothing like a real battle—in many ways despite the lack of fire and lightning and power it almost seems more dangerous. Some Pokemon hate it, some love it. Some trainers hate it, some love it. It focuses much more on having to actively train than typical Pokemon battling, it is very repetitive, and it is much less flashy. You think you're up for it?"

Ash shrugged. "I mean, I already know that this isn't really for me; I'm definitely challenging Indigo as soon as possible, and staying here for years will only help me fight one of the Elite Four. Still, I figured the experience of one tournament wouldn't hurt."

The man laughed. "How pragmatic. I'm Anthony, by the way—pretty sure I didn't say that. You?"

"Ash."

"Nice to meet you Ash. Let's get you started."

After Ash released Sparta the Hitmonlee was pit up against Anthony's (much older) Hitmontop in a quick battle. The entire time Dan muttered to himself, making notes on a small pad he was carrying himself.

"Few bad habits... few good ones... not using hands at all...not bad capabilities... quick to adapt... keeps on twitching, probably stopping himself from using moves..."

"Is he good?" Ash asked when Anthony finally called the match finished.

"He's not bad, 'specially for his age. I'd make him out to be 17, 18 months, so given that he's honestly doing much better than the average Hitmonlee would be, and it's obvious you weren't just focusing on moves, which is always good 'round here and even in Indigo herself, I'd expect."

"Great!" Ash said. He'd have to send AJ a thank you card.

"Yeah, but here's the bad news: your Hitmonlee has absolutely no idea what he's doing in this battle. He's never fought like this before, and it shows."

"Okay, so how do I deal with that?" Ash asked.

"Well you're not planning to battle this way long term, so I'd suggest focusing more on training Hitmonlee's instincts rather than teaching him specific techniques. He might score a bit lower in the tournament than he otherwise would, but you'd be able to use what he's been taught in his traditional battles more easily."

"Sounds good."

"Great! Alright, I'm going to set you up with my daughter. She'll run through your training and help coach you and your Hitmonlee through it."

Anthony's daughter (a girl named Rebecca, who had apparently spent her entire childhood at the Dojo) turned out to be a very good instructor, but even that wasn't enough to get over one important aspect: Ash sucked at this.

Well, that wasn't entirely true—he picked up Rebecca's coaching on Sparta's exercise regimen, as well as her tips about fighting Pokemon in general, easily enough, but...

Well.

Fighting Dojo battles, like Indigo League battles, were televised and available with just about every TV package in Kanto. Not only that, but unlike standard Pokemon battles they occurred _literally every week_ of the year, so they were functionally just as popular as the typical battles.

For most people.

Ash... never quite got into them. He liked moves, liked planning out the complex and, admittedly, cool-looking strategies and watching as they happened before his eyes.

He'd always found dojo battles boring by comparison.

Oh, he knew that often the strategy that went in to them could be just as complex as a normal battle, but at the same time... it just wasn't the same without using the power Pokemon natively had.

So, of course, when it came to training to fight one of those battles...

Ash did his best, of course, but at the same time he really did view it as just practice for fighting with and against fighting Pokemon in normal battles.

Sparta apparently took a different view to the training.

"He's good." Rebecca said, watching as the Hitmonlee went all out against a training dummy. "Has a real knack for it, you know?"

"Yeah." Ash blinked, watching as Sparta performed one perfect kick after another—a kick which he'd only been shown performed once.

"Might do better in the tournament than Dad thought."

Sparta was somehow kicking even faster than before.

"That's... good."

Of course, Ash's days weren't only centered around Sparta. Ash still had to do his homework, and practice Unovan, and train Zelus (who really, really didn't want to be trained.) Beyond that he was watching both Dojo battles (to prepare for the tournament) and psychic battles (to prepare for the gym.)

But most of his day was spent in the Dojo, watching Sparta go all out and feeling oddly...

Useless.

Gym battles Ash got. Gym battles he knew how to prepare for, how to fight, how to win. He figured dojo battles would be about the same and approached them from that angle, which on the whole seemed to work, but the problem was that for all that Sparta was good at traditional battling he was a _natural_ at move-less battles.

And Ash really, really wasn't.

It had gotten to the point that he'd mentioned it to his mom, because he just didn't know what else to do.

"I don't think I really understand. What's the problem?"

"It's not a problem, exactly." Ash explained. "It's just... I kind of feel like I'm failing Sparta, you know? I mean, he's always liked gym battles, but he _loves_ non-move battles and I don't. I guess I'm mostly just worried about what happens after the tournament is over. I mean, it's not like there's many dojos in Kanto, so it's not like I can keep on seeking them throughout my journey."

"Well, I suppose you'll have to see whether Sparta would prefer to be with you or stay here." His mother said. "And if he wants to stay at the Dojo, then you'll have to find a trainer to help him do that."

"That's... yeah, that's what I thought." Ash mumbled. He didn't want to give Sparta up—the Hitmonlee was part of his team, his family, and the idea of Sparta choosing not to stay with him...

The next day found him in the dojo again, watching as Sparta prepared for the following day's battles without any need for help.

"Good job, Sparta!" Ash called out after a particularly long and flawlessly executed regimen. The Hitmonlee bowed to him happily, before immediately jumping into the next routine Rebecca had had her Primeape demonstrate.

"You okay?" Rebecca asked, appearing suddenly beside Ash.

"What? Oh, yeah." Ash said.

"You don't really look okay." Rebecca said.

"I'm fine."

"..."

"I'm not fine." Ash finally mumbled. "Sparta is really good, and that's a good thing, and he really enjoys this, and that's a good thing, but I can't really put my journey on hold and its not like dojos are in every city in Kanto."

"Oh. That is a dilemma, isn't it?" Rebecca said.

"Not really." Ash said. "There's only two options, and my preferred choice isn't, I think, particularly relevant."

The girl didn't know what to say to that, and so she said nothing.

Ash, on the other hand, couldn't stop thinking.

The tournament, for Ash and Sparta, began with a fight against a Tyrogue that its evolved form, unsurprisingly, creamed.

Then came a battle with a Primeape, then one with a Pignite from a tourist Unovan.

Sparta blew through them both.

Sparta's fourth battle—the quarter-finals for his age—was against a Machoke that was nearly double his size.

Sparta, without any input from Ash, kicked, punched, and spun his way through nearly three minutes of combat before going down. The crowd went wild—the battle, for all that it didn't seem particularly fascinating to Ash, was apparently a nail-biter for the rest of its audience.

And then came what Ash was looking forward to the least.

He'd found a cliff near the edge of Saffron for the occasion, one which had a fantastic view of both the natural wonder of Kanto and the city itself, and kept the rest of his Pokemon unreleased.

This conversation was not one to be had with the full team.

"So... you liked that kind of battling." Ash started. Sparta nodded. "And you were really good at it." Ash grinned at the Hitmonlee, and he was fairly sure if he could he would have been blushing. Then Ash took a deep breath. "Do you want to do that full time?"

Sparta jerked.

"It's okay if you do." Ash said, turning to face Sparta, rather than the view, directly. "Really, it is. But it's important for _you_ to make the decision. If... if you chose to stay here then your journey with me will be over. I'll find you a new trainer, one that can give you the kind of training you need, but that does mean that you won't see me or Eacus again, or at least not for a pretty long time."

Sparta was still.

"So, what do you want to do, buddy? Is it time for you to start your own journey?"


	35. The Mind

If you have any questions/comments/concerns/ideas/edits, put them in a review and I'll try to answer/read/explain/incorporate/fix them.

The list of Ash's Pokemon is in my profile.

* * *

Sparta chose dojo fighting.

Ash kind of knew he would. Ash loved his mother, after all, but he chose to go on his journey rather than stay with her all year. The two circumstances were a bit different, of course, but not enough to change the result.

Ash let each of his Pokemon out one by one, beginning with Eacus, to say goodbye and the next day he transferred Sparta to Rebecca, who promised to make sure the fighting type had a good trainer.

Ash... Ash really, really wished that Sparta had preferred regular fighting.

He promised to visit the fighting type, though (it wouldn't be fair of Ash to keep him in the party when he could so rarely visit, but he could at least still make an effort to see him occasionally), and while none of the party would get over the loss quickly they seemed generally happy that Sparta was happy, which was the important bit.

Unfortunately Ash had no time to recover; his gym battle was coming up, Zelus still needed to be trained, and it was already mid-October—he needed all his gym badges by April first, and so far he only had three official badges in two and a half months—and two of them were known as some of the easier badges to get!

If Ash wanted to be prepared for the Indigo league, then in the next five and a half months he had to get at least one badge done a month, and he'd prefer to be further ahead than behind given that the higher the badge the longer it was supposed to take to get your Pokemon prepared for the battle.

On top of that Boreas was finally large enough to learn Fly, which meant he needed to get the TM for that and train the flying type in how to carry him beyond just having him practice lifting large weights. He was still behind in his schoolwork, too, and he'd never actually trained his Pokemon on using berries in battle which he definitely needed to do.

His therapist was helping him work through his new phobias, including his fear of Dragonite, but Ash needed to carry over the same aid to his Pokemon.

His Unovan was just getting to the point where he might be able to use a couple words in battle, so he also had to start teaching those words to his team.

He had to choose a trainer class, at the very least by the Indigo League but hopefully as soon as possible so that he could start meeting the requirements and reaping the benefits of joining a specific group.

He was just really, really busy.

So on he went.

Saffron Gym, unusually, did not require you to battle anyone before challenging the gym leader. This was good in some ways—he wasn't exhausting any of his Pokemon, at least—but bad in others: Ash really, really, really would have preferred more practice battling Psychic types, but it was clear that if he wanted to keep his appointment he wouldn't be able to get it.

Well, at least he tended to work better under pressure.

"Ash Ketchum?"

"Yes, sir."

"Take the door to your right."

"Yes, sir."

Ash quickly wiped his hands on his pants. He'd never been this stressed before the battle, but something felt... off.

He grimaced, and tapped his Pokeballs again. He had a plan, he just had to stick to it. One pokemon to go against, three he could use on his side.

Two hour time limit.

He swallowed, but his throat was dry and he nearly had a coughing fit.

He really wished he had Sparta now. He knew the fighting type was awful against psychics, but he was so steady and calm that just knowing the Hitmonlee was with him would have helped Ash calm down.

Now, however, was not the time to think about this.

He opened the door.

Damn it, he really should have brought a water bottle.

(Don't curse, Ash.)

The room was well lit, but still looked dim. Ash figured that was because of the grey tones used to paint the entire arena.

The pedestal across from him, which held a chair and little else, was void of people. So was the rest of the room.

Ash kind of felt like he was sweating, but when he checked he was fine.

 _What was going on?_

Was this a Pokemon? He didn't remember any kind of Pokemon which could (legally) make him feel like this, so tense, so uncomfortable.

It wasn't really something he'd focused on, of course, but...

Where was she? He wanted to get this done with.

After what felt like minutes, hours, days the door across from him finally slid open.

"Hello, Mr. Ketchum." The woman said. "My name is Sabrina. Shall we begin?"

Ash found himself unable to speak. He coughed, then said "Um, yes."

"Excellent." Sabrina said. "As I understand this is your seventh gym, but only your fifth official one, so I will be battling with a moderately well trained Kadabra and adjusting my skill level once I have a better idea of your skills."

 _Stick to the plan,_ Ash thought, and he grabbed his first Pokeball, suddenly incredibly happy that he'd talked through what he wanted the Pokemon to do with them well before he entered the gym.

"Ah, a Gardevoir." Sabrina said, watching impassively as Tyche immediately began with imprison, followed by a quick mud slap, lucky chant, focus energy, calm mind, and mind reader, all the while teleporting rapidly across the field. "You're starter."

"Um, yes." Ash said. He could hear his heartbeat in his earlobes. He didn't like it.

"And did you become a trainer this year?" She asked. Below them the battle raged on, not as much in Ash's favor as he would have hoped. While the lower possible move set was obviously hindering the Kadabra, it had had no trouble beginning to use disable on Tyche's own moves, forcing her to become even more creative in return because she only had two moves which could be considered reasonably damaging to the Kadabra—magical leaf and mud slap—and neither were particularly awe-inspiring.

"Yes." Ash said.

"The ability to concentrate on multiple things at a time is integral to being a trainer, you know." She said.

Ash nodded, watching as Gardevoir's mud slap was disabled and itching to find a solution.

"So you're a prescriber to the fast-evolution school of Pokemon training?" Sabrina asked. "After all, most trainers wouldn't bother to get their pokemon as powerful of yours until after a year or two of training—do you not see the need for training your Pokemon in battle tactics before they become powerful enough that the tactics are irrelevant in most battles?"

"I—yes. I mean, I know the benefits of training your Pokemon slowly, but none of my Pokemon have ever had much—" His voice cut off, distracted by the solid Night Shade the Kadabra had gotten off on Tyche. She quickly recovered, though, and spent no time sending a blur of Magical Leafs at the other psychic type in all directions. "—much trouble with that."

"None of them?" Sabrina repeated, leaning forward from her seat.

"No." Ash said. He winced as Tyche was thrust to the ground again. One more hit and he'd have to withdraw her if he wanted any hope of bringing her back to the battle later. He whispered the Unovan phrase for 'wrap up', and watched as Tyche bobbed her head in acknowledgement.

Then he noticed that Sabrina had gone silent, and glanced up.

She was staring at him with an expression on her face that he didn't recognize, and after a second he noticed that the oppressive atmosphere of the gym had seemed to lift, and his chest no longer felt unnecessarily constrained.

"What?"

"Have you noticed anything... odd? About your Pokemon, I mean."

"They're fine!" Ash said.

"And I never said they weren't." Sabrina soothed. She made a gesture with her hand that he didn't know the meaning of, and the Kadabra went on the attack. "Still, anything at all?"

Ash wasted no time in withdrawing Tyche and sending out Eacus. The poor Houndoom was probably still too weak for this battle, but his type advantage and very strong moves would help him draw it out until Ash felt ready to send in his last Pokemon.

"...I mean, besides my most recent Pokemon they all had two abilities." Ash said. It was an odd coincidence, and not one fully explained by 'luck of the draw' as he wanted to believe.

Sabrina hummed. Below them Eacus had wasted no time in going for Beat Up, but unfortunately quick thinking on the Kadabra's part had left the move Disabled and Eacus playing keep-away with smog until he could use the move again.

"Anything else? Perhaps moves that shouldn't have working, or unusually fast growth spurts, or evolutions happening prematurely?"

Ash shrugged.

"No time an electric attack hit a ground type pokemon, for instance? Or," She said, glancing at the battle in front of them, "a psychic type moved worked on a dark type?"

Ash blinked. "Um, once." He said. "Eacus—um, I had Tyche use heal pulse on him." That hadn't been a very good night, and he'd been in such a hurry that it hadn't even occurred to him—how had the heal pulse worked?

Sabrina smirked, then leaned back. "You'll be staying after the battle," she said, "win or lose."

Ash blinked at her, but before he could say anything Eacus was knocked back with a series of odd sparkles—Dazzling Gleam, one of the few TMs a Kadabra was known to be able to learn that actually affected any dark types. Ash wasn't really surprised that Sabrina's Pokemon knew it, of course, but he had hoped she'd have waited longer before using it.

He withdrew Eacus. It was time to call up his third Pokemon—Zelus.

(He really wished he could've not used him at all, it was never a good thing to use a Pokemon who did not yet respect you, but the Haunter needed the experience and he didn't want to waste Tyche or Eacus out too much.)

It took... three, maybe four seconds for Zelus to make him regret the decision.

"Poison Gas, Zelus! Poison Gas!" Ash whispered. Well, he'd started at a whisper. Admittedly his tone was a *touch* louder than that now. He'd tried to convince the Haunter to use Shadow Ball, Sucker Punch, Toxic, Night Shade, Confuse Ray...

At this point he didn't even care what move the Pokemon did so long as he did _something_.

"Come on, Zelus!"

"I'd really hope he was a recent capture." Sabrina hummed.

"Yeah, just before this city." Ash said, watching as Haunter taunted the stolid Kadabra by doing just about anything _but_ attacking him.

"And you thought it'd be a marvelous idea to send him straight into battle?"

"None of my other Pokemon have been this... belligerent. Plus I thought it'd get him to listen to me a bit better if I threw him into the deep end."

"That... doesn't seem to be working very well." She pointed out.

Ash stared at the arena. "Yeah, not as good as I'd hoped."

"Well then, let's make this part a battle of attrition—for your benefit, of course." Sabrina said. "Your Haunter will have to get fed up and attack eventually."

Ash agreed happily—it wasn't, as she pointed out—as if it'd hurt his chances any.

And then he sat, because Zelus was really, really stubborn.

What followed was an exhausting adventure in absolutely nothing happening—Zelus wiggled his fingers, played his disappearing-fright trick, poked Kadabra just about everywhere, made some incredibly ignoring noises...

By the time the first hour passed Ash was just about ready to fall asleep.

By the second hour he actually did fall asleep for a few seconds (not his proudest moment.)

It just went _on_ and _on_ and _on_ and...

Well, the point was he really wanted to get back to fighting.

Sabrina, of course, looked completely unaffected.

Her pokemon was similarly stoic, but that wasn't a surprise—he was fairly sure that the Abra line had no way to physically express their emotions.

It took two hours and fifteen minutes, more or less, before Zelus finally blew up.

It happened without warning—as far as Ash could tell (though he'd never claim to be an expert on ghostly expressions), Zelus had seemed ready to keep trying for a couple more hours, until suddenly he wasn't.

He began hurdling one Shadow-Ball after another at his psychic opponent, billowing Smog into the air and shooting a Confuse Ray every few seconds besides.

Before Ash had even taken in the change in situation Sabrina had already murmured something and suddenly Kadabra was on the attack, flickering around the arena at twice or even three times Tyche's best speed. As he blurred across the area Kadabra also began to fire off his own attacks, using... Foul Play, Ash thought, and he suddenly wondered how many moves the other Pokemon knew.

It took less than a minute for Zelus to have been worn to exhaustion, and Ash grabbed his Pokeball to return him.

"Stop." Sabrina said. "Leave him out and release your next Pokemon. It is not as if your Haunter is in any shape to be preforming an illegal move anyway."

Ash nodded, and reached for a different ball.

"Welcome back, Eacus." He whispered as the Pokemon materialized. "Let's end this."

It was mind-blowingly clear at that point that Sabrina had already decided to give him the badge. Her Kadabra still looked almost entirely uninjured, she wasn't bothering to have him use Dazzling Gleam, and she'd told Ash to let Zelus stay out for a reason.

Still, there was no point in taking chances.

Ash played every card in Eacus's book over the next few minutes, making sure the Dark type hit the Psychci type as hard as possible at minimum risk to himself. The entire time Zelus hovered at the side of the arena, his grinning face giving nothing away about how he felt about the turn of events.

It was only when the Kadabra began to look truly damaged that Sabrina returned him, ceding the battle.

Ash returned his own Pokemon himself—he'd see if the lesson had set in for Zelus later—and the two of them moved to a different room to get his new badge.

"And now we have something else to talk about." Sabrina said. "It is time for you to wake up to the irregularities happening in your life." She gestured to a chair, and Ash sat.

"Tell me, Ash," she continued, "what do you know of psychics?"


End file.
